'For Facts Sake!': Steph Ruhle BREAKS DOWN Trump's baseless claims in last night's speech

[0:00] Good morning. Once again, I am Stephanie Ruhle live from Times Square. It is 9 a.m. on the East [0:04] Coast, 6 a.m. out West. And as we come on the air today, the truth matters, but only if you hear [0:12] it. Last night, President Donald Trump addressed the nation, sowing doubt about our country's [0:17] elections with repeated baseless claims and announcing that his administration has declassified [0:23] intelligence and posted it back up to what he was saying. It is his latest push for voting [0:29] restrictions, the big, big bill before the midterms. So I'm going to take you through [0:33] exactly what he said and fact check it point by point. And I know some of you are already saying [0:40] or you're putting it in the comment section now. I have read your questions. I hear it. Why are we [0:44] playing what Donald Trump says on your show, given how much of it is a flat out lie, given that it's [0:48] untrue? Well, first of all, he is the president of the United States, which means his words affect [0:53] our world for better or worse. But second and more importantly, we want to arm you with the [0:59] truth about what he says, both because we want you to know it and because we want you to be able [1:04] to share it with people you know who believe what he says. So here we go. The president had five main [1:11] points. The first two were about China. Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election [1:19] cycle, the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of [1:26] election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. [1:36] The second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the deep state, very, [1:43] very famous group of people, many cases in our intelligence agency work to actively suppress [1:50] and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling. [1:57] OK, for facts sake, voting data is publicly accessible. Most states make their data available [2:04] to anybody who wants it. Some of them even do it for free. And we have known for years that China is [2:09] trying to collect that data. It is a problem. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been warning about [2:15] it for years. And there is a very big difference between what Trump claimed and what is actually [2:20] in the intelligence documents that the White House actually posted. The documents just say that China [2:26] legally bought 2020 voter data from seven different states. And as far as the deep state goes, [2:33] the documents simply show that there was a minority view in the intel community that China was looking [2:38] for ways to influence the 2020 election. They also show that the man who led that effort, Chris Porter, [2:44] agreed that there was no information suggesting that China, in fact, tried to interfere with the [2:50] election process. Next up, the voting machines. The third set of documents we are releasing proves [2:58] that for many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, [3:06] including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems, dishonest almost all. [3:13] people. They're vulnerable and they're easily compromised. And people within our government [3:20] knew that. Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically [3:25] manipulate vote totals or change election results on these terrible machines. Today, we are releasing [3:33] documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the [3:42] corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela. And that's exactly what happened. [3:51] For fact's sake, the documents released by the White House show that Venezuela had some ability to [3:57] manipulate voting systems, but only in that country, Venezuela, not the United States. And if you do not [4:02] want to take my word for it, here's what John Solomon, a member of Trump's election task force, [4:08] told our colleague Vaughn Hilliard right after the speech. Do you acknowledge that there were no votes [4:13] changed in 2020? All I can acknowledge is what the intelligence shows, right? I only know. The [4:17] intelligence committee has zero evidence that someone has flipped, that a foreign power flipped [4:21] a vote in 2020, 22 or 24. And you have no, you're able to acknowledge that- We're not through all the [4:26] documents. You're able to acknowledge that Venezuela has not tampered with voting machines in the United [4:30] States. No, the intelligence is very clear. They did it on their own machine. Zero evidence. Trump's next point [4:39] was about an investigation that took place in Michigan. The fourth set of documents reveals that even when [4:46] significant evidence of fraud has been detected, it has been buried and covered up. Among the disclosures [4:55] tonight are FBI files detailing evidence of alleged fraud by a large scale voter registration operation [5:02] in Michigan. In 2020, Michigan State Police raided a Democrat, get out the vote organization, corrupt [5:10] group. In Muskegon, the documents state that some canvassers admitted to FBI agents that they signed [5:18] voter registration forms and other people's names, submitted fraudulent registration for people who did not [5:25] exist, and received gift cards tied to their number of applications that they produced. In other words, [5:32] it was pay, play, and cheat. The FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed. [5:44] For fact's sake, this is not new. We have known about it for almost three years. Officials pointed [5:49] out that this is an example of the system actually working like it should. An election official noted [5:54] irregularities and notified the authorities. The FBI closed that investigation last September [5:59] when Trump was in office saying it did not identify a criminal violation. Now let's go to Trump's final [6:06] point, which is focused on his favorite non-citizen voting. We are releasing the results of a stunning [6:14] investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public [6:23] records, they identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal [6:31] elections. Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files, the real number is actually much [6:38] higher than that. This one is simple. Trump and his team offered absolutely no proof to back up that [6:48] number. And when it comes to non-citizens actually voting, the bipartisan policy center could find only 77 [6:54] instances between 1999 and 2023. That is 24 years and all of them were investigated. And a few final reminders, [7:04] Donald Trump is telling you our elections are broken when he won the last major election. Donald Trump is telling [7:09] you about all of these alleged election breaches that happened in 2020 when he was the president and had the [7:16] levers of power. Donald Trump is also telling you he will encourage all levels of government to help secure our [7:22] elections when he is the one who's recently fired federal workers who do that very thing at places like the [7:29] cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency and the Election Assistance Commission. And one last point, [7:36] the midterms, they're just 109 days away.