House Dems warn of weaponized intel ahead of Trump's speech

House Dems warn of weaponized intel ahead of Trump's speech.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are urging the nation's top spy chiefs to stop President Donald Trump if he tries to declassify cherry-picked intelligence material that unfairly sows doubt about the 2020 election during his primetime address Thursday evening.

"The facts of the 2020 election have long been settled. The Intelligence Community assessed in a declassified Intelligence Community Assessment from 2021 that, 'We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to interfere in the 2020 US elections by altering any technical aspect of the voting process.' No intelligence to the contrary has ever been provided to the Committee, despite repeated requests for updates," reads the letter, which was shared with POLITICO.

The missive underscores the growing worry from Democrats about Trump's speech, scheduled for 9 p.m. eastern, where the president has promised to unveil "really big news" on election security. "If true, this has the hallmarks of another transparent attempt to relitigate debunked 2020 election conspiracies, sow doubt ahead of the 2026 midterms, and potentially lay the groundwork for an unprecedented assertion of federal power over the conduct of elections," reads the letter, which the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), spearheaded. It calls on the spy chiefs to "stand up" if Trump tries to declassify material that is "intended to mislead."

In its after-action report on the 2020 election, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that China "considered but did not deploy" any attempts to influence voter perceptions, but acknowledged that some intelligence community analysts disagreed. Vulnerabilities in U.S. voting machines have long been known to election officials, who argue they can be mitigated.

Democrats aren't the only ones worried about Trump's speech: Republicans are also fretting what the President will say on air Thursday night.