Trump Is Coming for Our Elections
Trump's own declassified documents disprove his speech. The White House won't commit to accepting the midterms. And Georgia is building the machinery
What I’m Hearing — July 17, 2026
This is “What I’m Hearing” — a somewhat daily guide to the stories that matter, drawn from the best pro-democracy political writers working right now, with my analysis on top.
Trump Promised “Really Big News” on Elections. His Own Documents Say Russia Helped Him.
The primetime address Thursday night was hyped for days: “shocking vulnerabilities” in American elections, delivered from the East Room, with a trove of newly declassified intelligence. Only one major broadcast network bothered to carry it live. Robert Hubbell called the result a “nothingburger,” and that’s being generous, because the documents Trump released actively disprove him.
His marquee claim was that China carried out “the largest compromise of election data in history.” What the documents show, per CNN’s review of the full trove, is that none of it supports the claim that any American election result was altered by foreign interference or fraud. The “compromise” amounts to China buying publicly available voter-roll data that anyone can purchase from a data broker. The intelligence community’s actual assessment, which Trump’s own administration declassified, found that China stayed on the sidelines in 2020. The country that ran an influence operation was Russia, promoting Trump. Even John Solomon, the man Trump hired to investigate voting irregularities, acknowledged no votes were changed in 2020, 2022, or 2024. And Sam Stein at The Bulwark found the perfect kicker: the IC’s March 2021 report defines “spreading false or inflated claims about alleged compromises of voting systems to undermine public confidence” as the signature move of hostile foreign actors. The president performed a foreign influence operation on himself in primetime.
This speech was never about 2020. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked directly whether Trump would accept the 2026 midterm results if Republicans lose. She declined to say. That’s the story. They are actively laying the groundwork to declare a national emergency and take control of elections in this country. It might not work, but that is the game plan.
And the machinery is already being assembled at the state level. Justin Glawe reports for Zeteo that Georgia’s Trump-praised State Election Board has hired two election deniers as taxpayer-funded investigators with subpoena power — one of whom posted “the cheat is on” before being hired. The board challenged 220 voter registrations in heavily Democratic Chatham County using software called ELLY, built by an election denier. When a 19-year county elections director tested ELLY, it flagged a board member’s living wife as dead and misrecorded the director’s own voting history. That’s the national plan in miniature: manufacture official-looking “fraud” findings locally, then cite them from the White House.
Read more: CNN, CBS News, Robert Hubbell, Zeteo, The Bulwark
“I’m his lawyer.”
On Thursday, Dani Bensky became the first Epstein survivor to testify before Congress, urging senators to reject acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination. Per Aaron Parnas, she called it “absolutely egregious” that the DOJ released survivors’ nude images and identifying information while Blanche insisted “nothing was mishandled,” and said his eight months of silence toward victims has been “deafening.” Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer testified that documents contradict Blanche’s sworn account of her firing. The New York City Bar Association filed a formal objection. And then there was the moment that defines the nomination: asked whether he is Trump’s friend, Blanche answered, “I am his lawyer . . . was his lawyer.” The nation’s chief law enforcement officer, correcting himself mid-sentence about who he works for.
The survivors’ testimony potentially moved a vote. Sen. Thom Tillis conditioned his support on Blanche meeting with Epstein survivors: “I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote… I’m trying to get to yes.” So Thursday afternoon, Blanche met with them.
Annie Farmer, who testified at Maxwell’s criminal trial, whose sister Maria reported Epstein to authorities in 1996, came out saying she’s “even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation.” Her description: “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors — a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing.” Blanche wouldn’t commit to investigating why Maria’s 1996 report was ignored. He denied ever saying there were no investigative leads; when survivors pointed out he said it in the media, he doubled down. He claimed he lacks the power to open an investigation. There are some seashells in North Carolina that disagree.
Sky Roberts, brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, said the meeting “felt like he only had it because his hand was forced.” The survivors’ lawyer called it “clearly to check a box.” Blanche’s own summary: “The purpose of the meeting was just to listen. They weren’t prepared for this meeting, nor was I.” He scheduled a meeting to save his nomination and admitted he didn’t prepare for it.
Blanche remains under a federal court order to produce Epstein documents, and a judge just referred him to the New York Bar over misleading congressional testimony. The committee stands at 11-10. Tillis and Cornyn, two Republicans with nothing left to fear from Trump, hold the nomination in their hands. The survivors have done their part, at enormous personal cost. Now we find out if two senators can match the courage of the people they heard from this week. I highly doubt either Tillis or Cornyn will rise to the occasion. I hope I’m wrong.
Read more: CNN, ABC News, The Parnas Perspective, Popular Information, Letters from an American
ICE Killed a Second Man. The Shooter’s Own Family Says He Shouldn’t Have Had a Badge.
On Monday morning, an ICE officer shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man, in his car near his home in Biddeford, Maine, in front of his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, still in her Bluey pajamas. Guerrero had work authorization and a Social Security number. He was a delivery driver. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin admitted to Sen. Angus King’s office that Guerrero was not the target of the operation. The agents wore no body cameras. No footage supports the official account, which, nearly word-for-word, is the same “vehicle attempted to flee” story ICE told after killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston two weeks ago. At least 10 people have now died in encounters with immigration agents since the crackdown began.
The Portland Press Herald identified the shooter as David Brouillette, 37, hired by ICE in late 2025, and the AP’s exclusive investigation into his record is damning. Hundreds of family court records allege years of physical and verbal abuse, stalking, and harassment; judges granted protective orders. One ex-wife says he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child. When he told his first ex-wife that ICE had hired him, she thought he was having a delusional episode. And after the shooting, he called her to ask her to lie. “He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him, and he said that the most important thing is his character right now.” Flush with $70 billion and hiring at speed, ICE is waving through recruits wholly unqualified. These killings aren’t accidents; they are the direct result of policy decisions, and the blood is on the hands of the senators who authorized this budget.
Maine Senator Susan Collins, who again has some serious concerns, voted for the $70 billion ICE funding. After the killing, she took credit for persuading DHS to pause non-urgent traffic stops. Trump overruled it within a day, posting: “We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” The only surviving concession: one team member per stop must wear a body camera. Two men are dead, the pause lasted 48 hours, and the senator who funded it all wants credit for a restraint that no longer exists.
Tim Miller at The Bulwark named the stakes better than I can: Araujo in Houston, in this country for more than 30 years, no criminal record. Guerrero in Maine, legally authorized to work. “Both of them were summarily executed in the street for being Hispanic.” His warning is about numbness — the administration is counting on the killings blurring into noise. “I’m not f***ing numb.” Neither am I. Remember their names, remember their families, hold their killers accountable, and make November about it. The midterms are 109 days away.
Read more: AP, Zeteo, The Bulwark, Robert Hubbell
That’s your Friday. Trump’s election speech was disproven by his own documents. His personal lawyer is about to become Attorney General. And ICE killed again.