Warner labels Trump election fraud claim ‘completely false’

Senate Warner labels Trump election fraud claim ‘completely false’ Comments: by Finya Swai - 07/17/26 8:50 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Finya Swai - 07/17/26 8:50 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Thursday rejected President Trump’s claims that China meddled with the 2020 presidential election, calling the allegations “so completely false” and accusing Trump of trying to undermine confidence in future elections.

Warner, in an interview with MS Now’s shortly after Trump delivered his primetime address, questioned why intelligence officers failed to uncover solid evidence of the alleged scheme sooner if it had actually occurred.

He noted the irony that Trump’s own appointees, including CIA Director John Ratfliffe, “were in charge of the intelligence community” at the time.

“Why didn’t they find any of these so-called allegations?” the Virginia Democrat, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked.

During Trump’s 20-minute speech, he made unsubstantiated claims that China carried out what he described as one of the largest compromises of election data, claiming unclassified information released on a new White House website would show Beijing acquired hundreds of millions of voter files.

China later refuted the allegations of meddling in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to former President Biden.

“As an American, I’m embarrassed,” Warner told host Jen Psaki. “I’m embarrassed that the President of the United States tried to speak to the whole nation with a whole series of falsehoods, accusations, I believe, aimed at trying to undermine confidence in our system.”

The senator also noted that voter registration records are legally available for purchase in many states.

“You know what? You can buy these voter files. There’s no need to hack,” he said. “I buy the Virginia voter files on a regular basis. If you are gonna be a statewide candidate, they are open to any entity.”

Warner added that associating the accumulation of legally purchasable voter files with “manipulation is so completely false.”

He suggested Trump was laying down the groundwork to challenge future elections and urged his Republican colleagues to “speak up and tell the truth,” if they have dignity.

“This guy will not win a free and fair election, so he will do anything to intervene, to corrupt our elections,” the Democrat added.