Today in Politics, Bulletin 421. 7/17/26
… Trump gave his big speech last night where he claimed he would unveil proof that our elections were being tampered with and compromised by foreign govts. He specifically said that Venezuela and China were involved. However, when the links to the heavily redacted documents were released, it showed more of the same old stuff we already knew.
… Along with evidence that Russia tried to help Trump win in 2020, which was also in the documents. He didn’t mention that part in his speech though.
… But it is clear that the main point of the speech was to create a pretext to tamper with the 2026 and 2028 elections by providing a justification for his Admin to start issuing illegal orders and mandates to state and local agencies while citing “national security.” Trump:
“Today we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela. 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.”
On 2020: “Dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China's election targeting were kept out of the presidential briefing. These were briefings I would get almost every day. Everything was kept out.”
“In 2019, the strategy of the Chinese govt was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the US president. China wanted to make it sound like your president wasn’t so hot, but actually your president was doing a great job.”
“Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.”
“Today, I'm asking the DNI, DOJ, the FBI and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden to fire those involved in the coverup, and to file criminal charges, if appropriate.”
“NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud. This should mean a revocation of their licenses.”
… Trump’s speech was based off a report issued by right-wing TV host John Solomon, who was hired by the WH as a special govt employee to work on the project over the past year. MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard caught Solomon outside the WH after the speech:
Q - “Do you acknowledge that there were no votes changed in 2020? Solomon: I can only acknowledge what the intelligence shows. The intel community has zero evidence that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, 2022 or 2024.”
Q - “So there’s no evidence that Venezuela tampered with any of our voting machines? Solomon: No, they did it on their own machines.”
Q - “So there’s no evidence that the 2020 election was tampered with? Solomon: I’m still researching. Not yet.”
… 3 WH aides then grabbed Solomon and ushered him away from Hillyard. As he walked away with the WH aides, Solomon then turned around briefly and said to Hillyard apologetically: “The president said that’s enough.”
… CBS was the only national network to cover the speech live. Sen. Mark Warner was on CBS right after: “I was embarrassed that the president went before our country and networks like yours carried this as news as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods. It is incumbent upon you and any responsible journalist to pushback on this.”
… Warner then went on MS NOW: “Just the plain ignorance and factual misrepresentations when he says, oh my gosh, countries get access to our voter files. You know what? You can buy these voter files. There's no need to hack.”
… Fox only covered Trump’s speech for the first 3 minutes before cutting away, and then spent zero programming time after talking about it. Maybe Murdoch has had enough of airing 2020 conspiracies after it cost him $787 million. This is what they said when breaking away from the speech: "Fox News has not seen the evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president's statement and claims"
… Former Rep. Tom Malinowski on CNN: “Is he going to fire CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was in charge of his daily briefing? He's implying that China was part of some nefarious conspiracy. Is he going to sanction his friend XI Jinping, who he's kissing up to every single day?”
… CNN then debunked Trump’s claims:
“They're arguing that China got access to 200 million voter files for 200 million Americans, but they might not have pointed out, is that a lot of those voter files, you can buy them online.”
“Concerns that Venezuela was experimenting with software that could flip votes—We looked at the CIA memo that described that allegation, and it made pretty clear that, Venezuela might be able to do that at home. But the assessment from the CIA was that they wouldn't be able to do that abroad.”
“There was new info that the WH claimed showed from DHS that 250,000 noncitizens are on the voter rolls. That's their allegation. We looked deeper into the data and the sources of that info are just not reliable. When you looked at the better source, the govt sources that assess who's a citizen who's not, it was a much smaller number, only about 28,000.”
… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): “This is absurd. Every piece of voter data Trump mentions here, as well as which elections each voter voted in, is readily available in Kentucky for a small fee.”
… Sen. Jon Ossoff on MS NOW:
“Tonight, I heard a failed president desperately casting about for excuses to meddle in the upcoming election if he can, or to discredit the result when he loses decisively, as I expect he will. I heard a president who is, as always, focused on his personal shame and humiliation, and above all, focused on his personal fear of the accountability that will come when we win this fall.”
“As war spirals and prices rise is as always focused on his grievances, his shame, and above all his fear of the accountability that will come with defeat. I also heard a president signaling his unmistakable intent to attack these elections and our voting rights, just as he tried to throw out our votes and seize the presidency in 2020.”
“Our answer will be overwhelming. Across GA a wave of defiance is building to rebuke him so decisively that no president ever again dares such brazen corruption and abuse. The power of the presidency is nothing compared to the power of the people.”
… Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “Trump is a feeble, unhinged conspiracy-peddling 80-year old failed President. The economy is a disaster under this guy and the American people know it. Pathetic.”
… Sen. Chuck Schumer: “Trump knows he has lost American families. He knows he has made their lives more expensive, endangered their friends and families with an unnecessary war, and embarrassed the country on a global stage. And rather than pivot his policies, he is working to rig the midterms before a single vote has been cast. We won’t let him.”
… Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “Obviously, Donald Trump is a loser.”
… Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Trump is spending his evening spewing lies from 6 years ago instead of lowering costs for you right now.”
… Rep. Jim McGovern: “Trump says Democrats forgot to rig the election in 2016, successfully rigged it while HE was president in 2020, then forgot how to rig it again in 2024. So the only election Democrats supposedly stole was the one he himself controlled. You have to be a special kind of stupid to believe this bullshit.”
… Sen. Ed Markey: “Trump must be impeached for undermining and subverting our free and fair elections. And when he sends ICE agents to the polls, then we must turn civic action into civil disobedience and take to the streets. Sit in. Protest. Withhold our labor. Everything must be on the table.”
… DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin then gave a press conference today on Step 2 of Trump’s plan to tamper with elections:
“We know for sure that our foreign adversaries can access the key to the back of these machines. We know they can change your voter registration and your votes, it’s not even up for debate. “
“We are going to make our security enhancements mandatory. Meaning that if these states want a grant and want to be reimbursed from running federal election, they’re going to have to implement security issues. The machines need to be secure and voter registration lists need to be scrubbed.”
“If states choose not to participate in secure elections, we will make sure we look at those states as a priority to see who voted in those states and hold the election officials accountable by fines, penalties and prison time.”
… Mullin was then asked if any ICE officers were going to be held accountable for shooting incidents: “We’re turning up the heat on the streets. We want our law enforcement to do their jobs.”
… AP: “The ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives said.”
… “David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat. Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly DHS has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown.”
… “At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.”
… WaPo: “Through the first 12 days of July, ICE is on pace to arrest the most people in a single month during the second Trump admin. Arrests have surged in the last few weeks, with the daily avg rising to more than 1,400 people amid a renewed push from the WH to increase arrests across the country. Trump is seeking to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants per year.”
… “The number of people arrested by ICE and sent into detention facilities in June totaled more than 39,500. That surpasses the previous high from last December. At the current pace, July’s total would exceed June’s.”
… Fox host Jesse Watters on Pete Hegseth’s testosterone plan for troops: “You know what’s going to happen? The guys who don’t need it are going to take it to triple boost. Then they’re going to get out there and - women on base, you better be careful. Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful. Because these guys are going to be wild animals and you better watch out.”
… Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA): “This is one of the most vile and disgusting things I’ve seen someone say on Fox - which is saying something. Every Republican, SecDef Hegseth, and Trump need to condemn this filth. When your policies give license to this sexist, racist, violent language, you own the consequences.”
… I don’t think they are going to condemn it.
No Bulletin tomorrow because I am off Saturdays. I will be participating in the election tomorrow to select the 500 at-large delegates to the convention on July 25 to select Maine Dems’ nominee for senate. My name is on the ballot along with many others, and Maine voters are able to cast multiple votes online for delegate candidates. If you or someone you know is registered in Cumberland County (southern ME), you can vote for me or anyone else here.
Sadly, though, I am afraid the process has been hijacked by one of the candidates. Troy Jackson urged his followers through emails and social media posts to sign up to run to be a delegate. Over 500 of his supporters are on the ballot with each putting in their bio that they are backing Jackson. Then he told his supporters not to vote for anyone else (which includes me). This is what he sent in bold font:
“It is critical that you vote for the Troy Jackson slate AND ONLY THAT SLATE.”
That’s not really how this was supposed to work, but I suppose Jackson is doing whatever he has to do to win.
At least one of the other candidates, Nirav Shah, tried to do the same thing to a much lesser extent. So it looks at though ultimately this is not going to be a real convention where delegates elected by the people watch the debates, listen to the candidates, read their bios, and make a decision. This is probably going to be a mere formality since Jackson is likely to get enough of his supporters elected delegates tomorrow to already have enough votes at the convention.
So I don’t expect to be chosen. But I tried to participate and keep an open mind just in case. I watched the debate last night and I don’t think anyone hit a home run but I did like one of the candidates. I certainly haven’t made up my mind yet, but maybe it won’t matter anyway. I will find out tomorrow!
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Aaron Parnas reported for Meidas on Todd Blanche’s meeting with Epstein survivors:
“Blanche began by telling survivors, ‘I am not asking you guys to commit to anything today, and I don’t expect that I have to commit to anything today, too.’”
“The survivors asked him why he had said there were no investigative leads. Blanche replied that he never said that. They pressed him, pointing out that he had said it in the media. Amanda Roberts, the sister in law of Virginia Giuffre, asked him directly whether he had misspoken. Blanche doubled down.
“The survivors came prepared with direct questions. They wanted to know why existing evidence was not being treated as an investigative lead, who had the
