President Anticipated a Prime Time Address On Thursday. It Will Reportedly Be About The 2020 Election

President Trump plans to address the nation Thursday with a new theory about why he lost the 2020 election, according to a new report.

Trump announced on a Truth Social post that he planned to address the nation Thursday at 9 p.m. EST. CNBC, citing a report on MS NOW, said the speech will be about foreign election interference and “declassified” information.

According to the network, Trump will be joined by security officials including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

President Trump has long claimed that the 2020 election was stolen. In the aftermath of the campaign, more than 60 lawsuits were filed by President Trump and his allies challenging the result. None of the lawsuits were successful, and none produced evidence of election fraud, according to Politifact.

In 2023, Fox News, which aggressively reported many of the theories, was sued by Dominion Voting Systems. The company’s lawsuit alleged that Fox had promoted lies regarding the 2020 election and its voting machines. Fox settled the lawsuit for $787 million rather than go to trial, the Associated Press reported.

The Thursday speech could be Trump’s latest attempt to say that he lost the election unfairly. However, claims of interference in 2020 U.S. elections not new. In fact, there were reports of attempted interference before the election took place.

In August 2020, for example, Business Insider reported that National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina put out a statement that said China preferred Biden while Russia preferred Trump.

“This is consistent with Moscow’s public criticism of him (Biden) when he was Vice President for his role in the Obama Administration’s policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia,” Evanina stated, according to Business Insider. The government link to Evanina’s statement is no longer active.

Iran also attempted to interfere in the 2020 election, with the FBI indicting Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian for several offenses including computer intrusion and voter intimidation. The men’s alleged crimes were described as being part of “a multi-faceted campaign aimed at influencing and interfering with the United States 2020 Presidential Election.”

In March 2021, the National Intelligence Council declassified and released a 15-page report that documented actions of foreign governments in relation to the 2020 election. That report found that the actions of foreign governments involved influence campaigns and did not involve “technical” aspects of the election such as voter registration or vote casting.

Among the declassified report’s findings were that:

• Russian President Putin authorized a range of Russian government organizations to “denigrate” President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, support former President Trump, and undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
• Iran carried out a multi-pronged covert influence campaign intended to “undercut” Trump’s reelection prospects—though without directly promoting his rivals—undermine public confidence in the electoral process and U.S. institutions, and sow division.
• China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election. China did not view either outcome as advantageous enough to risk meddling.
• A range of additional foreign actors—including Lebanese Hizballah, Cuba, and Venezuela—took some steps to attempt to influence the election.

The report noted that Russia did not attempt to gain access to U.S. election infrastructure in 2020, as it had done in 2016. In fact, Russia’s interference and hacking efforts in 2016 resulted in 12 indictments against Russian military officers for various charges including computer hacking conspiracy, document theft, and the staged release of those documents.