Georgia dodges spotlight as Trump focuses on China in national address
After days of speculation that President Donald Trump would use Thursday’s primetime address to reignite his long-running battle over Georgia’s 2020 election results, the president didn’t mention the state once during the speech.
Instead, Trump focused broadly on alleged Chinese interference in American elections and made no direct mention of Georgia or the Democratic victories that helped cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate.
He did announce the declassification of documents which he said shows Chinese interference in U.S. elections starting in 2020 and “vulnerabilities” in electronic voting systems like the one used in Georgia.
“This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own system can never ever be hacked or compromised like it was in the past,” he said Thursday.
Trump’s remarks go against a previously released federal intelligence report that found “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 U.S. elections.”
The president added that his administration would be contacting state leaders and members of Congress about any potential issues in states using electronic voting systems.
“Dishonest almost all,” he said of the electronic systems. “They’re vulnerable and they’re easily compromised — and people within our government do that.”
A spokesperson for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday night that the office had not heard from Trump administration officials. In a statement, Raffensperger told the AJC he would review the documents released alongside the president’s speech.
“With photo ID, citizenship checks, list maintenance and rigorous audits, the Peach State remains the gold standard for those who want secure, accessible and fair elections,” Raffensperger said.
Before the speech, Georgia Democrats were gearing up to respond to more allegations from the president that the state’s 2020 election was “stolen” and that Joe Biden’s narrow win over Trump in 2020 — by a margin of just 11,779 votes — was “rigged.”
Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state since 1992, a victory credited in large part to Black voters who turned out in droves.
Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock also made history in 2021 by narrowly defeating Trump-backed candidates U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in runoff elections just nine weeks after Georgia Democrats flipped the state in November. Their victories were devastating blows for Republicans, who had won every statewide office in Georgia since 2006.
Since then, Georgia’s 2020 election has become one of the most extensively examined outcomes in American history.
The result has been the subject of audits, vote counts, investigations and court rulings. Three vote tallies, including a hand-count of every ballot cast, upheld Biden’s narrow victory.
Democrats have slammed Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud as an attempt to sow distrust in the election process ahead of the consequential midterm elections.
Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey criticized Trump on Thursday for “rehashing repeatedly-disproven conspiracy theories” to distract from the country’s affordability crisis.
“But it won’t work,” he said. “Georgia voters will respond to the failed president’s unhinged attacks on democracy by showing up in greater numbers than ever before to reject his toxic agenda and MAGA lackeys up and down the ballot.”
Rumors circulated in the days ahead of the speech that Trump would go as far as questioning the 2020 victories of Ossoff and Warnock, deeming them illegitimate U.S. senators.
In the end, no such claims were made during the 25-minute address.
In an interview on MS NOW following the president’s remarks, Warnock said Trump is still smarting over his loss in Georgia 2020.
“Donald Trump can’t get over it; his feelings are deeply hurt, even though he won in 2024. And come November, the American people are going to hold him accountable,” he said.
Georgia’s U.S. senator also called out his Republican colleagues, saying they are standing by as the president spreads election misinformation.
“You’ve got a whole range of Republican senators right now who know that this is nonsense that they heard the president spewing tonight. They know that he is setting fire on our democracy, and they are silent.”
Georgia’s Republican members of Congress were quick to echo Trump’s allegations.
“Our right to free and secure elections should be protected relentlessly, and every American should be alarmed by our enemies’ ability to disrupt our elections and jeopardize our right to vote,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, who is challenging Ossoff for his senate seat in November.
— Staff writers Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell contributed to this report.