Civil rights groups slam Trump’s election speech as attempt to undermine Black voters ahead of November
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“If we vote and we stay organized as a movement, Trump’s plan is going to fall flat on its face,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.
President Donald Trump‘s primetime address on Thursday night is being slammed and debunked as yet another attempt to sow doubt in U.S. elections as his party stares down likely defeats in November amid his unpopularity and voter apathy over the economy and other domestic and international policies.
Civil rights groups took aim at Trump’s nearly 30-minute speech, arguing that the president was trying to undermine and intimidate voters, most especially Black voters who played an outsized role in Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, which he continues to claim was rigged against him without any substantiated evidence.
“The lies coming out of this White House are absurd and scream authoritarianism. Donald Trump can’t even repair the reflecting pool, and we’re supposed to trust him with the integrity of our elections?” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “To state the obvious, there’s no evidence that calls into question the results of the 2020 election. The President of the United States has no authority over our elections. This is all a show to distract us from Trump’s failing economy and failing policies.”
The civil rights leader urged voters to show up at the polls in November, asserting, “If we vote and we stay organized as a movement, Trump’s plan is going to fall flat on its face.”
Johnson added, “Trump is nothing but a sore loser and will do anything he can to hold on to power. Don’t give in to the fear and the lies. We must stay united and stay vigilant. Remember, in this country, the people hold the power.”
During his address, President Trump announced that he had declassified documents related to the U.S.’s voting systems that supposedly expose new information about vulnerabilities, including foreign election interference and accusations of a “deep-state” cover-up.
“Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it,” said Trump.
However, many of the president’s claims were exaggerated, already known, or completely debunked. For example, Trump discussed China’s efforts to interfere in the 2020 election; however, documents published by the White House, while heavily redacted, were “far more guarded in their conclusions,” according to an analysis by The New York Times.
“[Thursday’s] speech was not an update, but yet another rehashing of President Trump’s personal grievances about losing the 2020 election,” said Shaylyn Cochran, deputy executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “We know that our elections are safe and secure, and claims of widespread voter fraud are myths to sow distrust in our elections.”
Cochran added, “Repeating debunked allegations and wild conspiracy theories does not make them true. But it can create a pretext for policies that burden eligible voters, particularly Black voters and other communities that have historically faced discrimination at the ballot box.”
In response to the Trump administration and the Republican Party’s repeated efforts to restrict mail-in voting, changing of voting rules, and purging of voters from voter rolls, the Lawyers’ Committee published a Black Voter Survival Guide to assist Black voters with registration, ID requirements, mail-in voting, and what to do if they run into trouble at a polling site.
Trump yet again pushed for Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship and IDs that match voters’ birth certificates. Critics say the bill, which does not have the support of a majority in Congress, will unnecessarily burden Black, brown, low-income, and women voters. While the administration continues to argue that the SAVE Act is necessary to protect election security by ensuring non-citizens aren’t voting in elections, it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.
Trump also alleged in his speech that the Department of Homeland Security identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in federal elections; however, he did not allege that any of these people voted in the federal elections.
The Center for Election Innovation and Research published a report that notes that “sweeping allegations about possible noncitizen registration or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data.” The report adds, “instances of registration or voting by possible noncitizens are extremely rare.”
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, described Trump’s speech as fearmongering to “justify trying to take away the constitutional role of states in deciding how voters vote.”
“He is obsessively trying at every turn to throw up walls to voters of every race, creed, and color: women who change their names when they marry; the elderly, members of our military, working people, and people with disabilities who are more likely to use mail-in ballots,” said Wiley. “The president’s speech was only the latest example of a leader desperate to block voters rather than focus on the real problems people face.”
The civil rights leader explained, “too often, the threats, intimidation and other tactics make it harder for Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American voters to cast their ballot.”
Pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing lawmakers to surgically draw Black voters out of majority-Black districts without consequence, Wiley said, “They want to rig election maps to make it harder for Black and Latino voters to elect leaders who speak to and will be accountable to their problems and needs.”