Trump reluctant to pressure China after claiming election interference

Geoff Bennett:

In his prime-time address last week about foreign interference in U.S. elections, President Trump made this sweeping claim about China:

President Donald Trump:

The People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.

Geoff Bennett:

But when asked repeatedly this week whether he would raise the issue directly with Beijing, Mr. Trump appeared to downplay his own warning.

President Donald Trump:

Well, we're going to talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But, look, they're -- they do things and we do things to them. I'll be honest. We do things to them too. It's not a one-way street. But we'll be talking to them, yes.

Geoff Bennett:

Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the issue did not come up in his meeting with China's foreign minister.

Question:

Was there disagreement on election interference?

Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State: We didn't discuss that topic.

Geoff Bennett:

That's unfolding as Democrats are raising concerns about President Trump's focus on the integrity of the nation's elections and what he and his allies might do ahead of November's midterms.

We're joined now by our White House correspondent, Liz Landers.

So, Liz, if President Trump believes China carried out what he described just last week as an extraordinary attack on a U.S. election, why is his administration backing away from confronting Beijing over it?

Liz Landers:

It's unclear why the president's tone has shifted on this, but we do know that, based on the documents and the intelligence that were released last week, it doesn't really back up what the president said in that speech.

Here is what China did do, based on what was declassified. They were involved in obtaining some of these publicly available voter data records. The president kind of referenced that there. But many states, most states release this kind of information publicly. Journalists can access this. Political parties can do it.

Sometimes, you have to pay a small fee, but it's out there publicly. The president said also in his speech that China wanted him to lose. There is a robust conversation that we saw in some of these declassified documents about the internal deliberations within the intelligence community talking about whether or not China wanted to interfere or influence the election.

But the report that was prepared by the then director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe, that was given to President Trump in January of 2021 after the election said that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered, but did not deploy influence efforts.

The president, as you mentioned today, said that this will not impact Xi's visit to the U.S. in September.

Geoff Bennett:

Meantime, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, he had a stark warning for Democrats this week about misinformation and what he sees as threats to the integrity of the midterms? What's he saying?

Liz Landers:

Schumer is warning that Democrats need to prepare for what he says are a variety of ways that he thinks that the president and the administration will try to influence or interfere with the elections here domestically.

He talked to MS NOW about this and said that they have been doing tabletop exercises, gaming out possible scenarios. This was a meeting that happened yesterday in the Capitol Building with Democratic senators, outside advisers and attorneys. One of the attorneys who was there is Marc Elias. He's represented Democrats in a lot of this election litigation in the past few years.

I spoke with him on the phone a few moments ago, and he said that Schumer and the Democrats are taking this very seriously. He said this is the second such meeting that they have had in the last few months to talk about the upcoming midterm elections.

And he said that, in almost every scenario and exercise that he's been involved with, there's been a hypothetical brought up about ICE agents or federal agents showing up at polls and what happens in that scenario. I have asked the president and the White House press secretary about this, and neither one of them have ruled it out.

The president told me a few months ago: "Well, I want to do whatever it takes to keep elections secure."

So Elias said that the reason that-this is important for the Democrats to be doing this right now is that the U.S. is facing what he calls an unprecedented threat to free and fair elections. And even in 2020, he said Trump did not take as many steps as he's taking now.

Elias said that there's a strategy that they're working on, litigation, public engagement, and combating misinformation through the press.

Geoff Bennett:

And, at the same time, you have Republicans, certainly the Trump administration, seizing on what happened in New Jersey. The governor there, Mikie Sherrill, said that, between 2023 and 2024, more than 6,000 noncitizens had been accidentally registered to vote.

She said more than 400 of them actually did. What more are Republicans saying?

Liz Landers:

Republicans in the White House are using this as a reason to push for the SAVE America Act. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about this today and asked specifically if this New Jersey case may lead to criminal prosecutions.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:

It is completely unacceptable to have noncitizens on American voter rolls voting in U.S. elections. And she says it's 6,600. We suspect it's a heck of a lot more, not just in New Jersey, but in states across the country.

Liz Landers:

Geoff, it's important to remind people that this number of voters, 400, that actually cast their ballots who were noncitizens, it's a very small percentage of the overall number of voters in New Jersey who cast their ballots in the last few election cycles.

This would not have changed the outcome of the election in New Jersey, the presidential election for 2024. And I just want to note too that the president brought this up in his speech, noncitizens voting and being on voter rolls. The Department of Homeland Security said that 250,000 noncitizens were on voter rolls in four states.

We don't know how they got that number, the administration. And when the homeland security secretary was asked how many of those people actually have cast ballots, he could not answer that question, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, Liz Landers, thanks, as always.

Liz Landers:

Of course.