President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address to the nation on Thursday, July 16, dedicated to election security. During the speech, he ordered the declassification of a large set of intelligence documents and said the television networks that declined to carry his remarks live on their main broadcast channels should lose their licenses.

The address generated two separate stories: a dispute over broadcasters' decisions not to carry the speech live on some primary networks, and renewed scrutiny of intelligence concerning foreign efforts to influence the 2020 election.

The White House announced the address on social media on July 13, saying it would be available on the White House's official social media accounts, YouTube channel, website, and C-SPAN.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters before the speech that Trump could also touch on Iran and the economy.

How the networks handled it

Television networks are not required to broadcast presidential addresses. There is precedent for skipping them: broadcast networks also declined to air a 2014 primetime address from President Barack Obama on immigration, a decision Democratic strategists and commentators cited this week as a comparison point, according to NBC News.

Coverage of Thursday's speech was split rather than uniform.

CBS and Fox preempted their regularly scheduled primetime programming to air the address live on their main broadcast channels.

ABC and NBC did not carry it on their primary broadcast channels but streamed it on ABC News Live, ABC News Radio, and NBC News NOW. Those streaming platforms draw smaller audiences than the networks' traditional broadcast signals, according to Axios.

CNN aired part of the speech on its cable channel, then broke away after about 15 minutes to fact-check statements Trump made about election fraud.

Reporters at the Daily Beast said ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, CNN, and MS NOW did not respond to repeated inquiries about their Thursday programming plans in advance of the speech. Snopes reported that claims circulating online before the speech, that networks were "refusing" to air it or that the White House had not offered it to them, were unconfirmed speculation at the time they spread, and that all networks named showed regularly scheduled programming on their listings as of that writing.

One factor cited repeatedly by outlets covering the decision: networks have grown more cautious about airing unverified presidential statements on the 2020 election since Fox News paid a $787.5 million defamation settlement tied to false 2020 election statements aired on its network, according to Time.

During the address, Trump said the networks that did not carry it live were "part of a plot" and said, "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses," according to multiple outlets present for the speech and a transcript of his remarks.

The White House's Rapid Response social media account separately criticized CNN for not airing the address live on its primary channel.

Legal experts note that broadcast stations, not networks themselves, hold FCC licenses, and that the commission's authority to revoke a station's license over the content of its coverage is limited by both the Communications Act and the First Amendment.

This is not the first time Trump has raised the possibility of pulling a network's license over coverage he viewed as unfavorable. He previously suggested ABC should lose its license following the network's suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death.

In December he said networks that are "almost 100% negative" in their coverage of him should have their licenses "terminated," according to Yahoo News.

The remarks come as federal regulators are already examining broadcasters on other grounds. The FCC, under chairman Brendan Carr, has opened investigations into broadcasters over compliance with public interest standards, including a review of ABC's "The View.”

ABC is currently in a license renewal proceeding with the agency.

Separately, Paramount's pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would give David Ellison's company control of CNN, is awaiting FCC approval after receiving Justice Department antitrust clearance last month, according Cyprus Mail.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the president's threat against ABC and NBC's licenses "in true authoritarian fashion" and said, "Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy," according to Time.

What the declassified documents say

Alongside the address, the White House released a large collection of intelligence and law enforcement records, described by CNN as including completed assessments, raw intelligence, recalled FBI reporting, and witness allegations, meaning the documents carry varying evidentiary weight and many of the underlying claims remain disputed or unproven.

Trump said the documents show that, starting in the 2020 election cycle, China carried out what he called the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in the acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files, according to NBC News.

The White House also said the documents indicate the Department of Homeland Security believes at least 250,000 non-citizens were on voter rolls. Trump separately said the CIA had obtained reporting on an effort to help the government of Venezuela in that country's own election.

The documents themselves, reviewed by several news organizations after their release, largely describe election system vulnerabilities that have been publicly known for years and that election officials have worked to address, according to CNN.

ABC News described the released files as heavily redacted and containing scattershot intelligence describing efforts to obtain, but not alter, voter records, along with social media activity intended to sow discord. None of the declassified material supports the position that any past election outcome, including the 2020 race, was changed by foreign interference or fraud, according to CNN.

The underlying question of Chinese access to voter data has a documented history predating this week. A National Intelligence Council report from January 2020 found that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea "have the capability to access and potentially manipulate" U.S. election data such as centralized voter registration databases.

A separate report declassified in 2021 found China had obtained voter registration data from multiple states in order to "conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election," according to CNN. Voter registration data of this kind is also commercially available for purchase, a point made publicly this week by Wisconsin Elections Commission chair Ann Jacobs and by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to NBC News and Deadline.

On the specific question of whether China sought to alter the 2020 election outcome, the U.S. intelligence community's own prior findings differ from the framing in Thursday's speech. All intelligence agencies involved in a 2021 assessment, including one agency that filed a dissenting view, found China did not attempt to interfere with the technical aspects of the 2020 election, such as vote-counting or the casting of ballots, according to CBS News.

That same 2021 assessment found China "considered but did not deploy" influence efforts intended to change the 2020 outcome, in contrast to Russia, which the assessment found did authorize influence operations aimed at helping Trump's candidacy, according to reporting on the declassified assessment.

A separate 2021 Intelligence Community Assessment found that some officials believed China took steps to undermine Trump's reelection chances, primarily through social media activity and public statements rather than through interference with election processes, according to ABC News. That report's minority view found no information suggesting China tried to interfere with election processes at all, a position then-held by John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence at the time and now leads the CIA, according to PolitiFact.

Several election security officials and legal experts disputed the speech's characterization of voting machine vulnerability. Stephen Richer, a Republican and former Maricopa County, Arizona, recorder responsible for voter registration and election administration, wrote that the United States uses auditable paper ballots and that any manipulation of tabulation machines, even if it occurred, would be revealed in post-election hand counts. Verified Voting president Pamela Smith said paper ballots available in nearly every state remain "the most important safeguard" against tampering, and election law attorney Ben Ginsberg said on CNN that no documentation or evidence has yet been produced showing any election result was incorrect.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington issued a statement ahead of the speech saying China "has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other's internal affairs" and does not interfere in U.S. elections, according to CBS News.

Trump's roughly 25 to 30 minute address also touched on the SAVE America Act, legislation he is pressing Congress to pass that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. He said in the address that "our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost," according to PolitiFact, which noted he did not present evidence of any specific vote or election outcome that was affected.

Where things stand

Additional analysis of the newly released records is expected in the coming days as intelligence experts, journalists, and election officials continue reviewing the documents. Meanwhile, the FCC has taken no formal action regarding Trump's comments about broadcast licenses. Both the legal questions surrounding the president's remarks and the significance of the declassified material remain subjects of ongoing scrutiny.

More on EEW Magazine Online: