Broadcast Networks Have Yet To Say If They’ll Carry Donald Trump’s Primetime Speech Amid Reports He’ll Bring Up Stolen Election Claims

The broadcast networks have yet to announce whether they will preempt programming and carry President Donald Trump‘s primetime address to the nation on Thursday evening, but it’s no surprise why the matter is still under discussion.

All week, there has been the expectation that Trump plans to focus on intelligence claims about the 2020 presidential election, and use it as a rationale for passage of the SAVE America Act. That focus puts the networks on the spot — devoting the primetime airwaves to potentially unsubstantiated and unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” even though courts rejected dozens of the Trump campaign election challenges that year before the race was certified.

Trump announced his plans for the address on Monday, and typically the networks would have some announcement by now.

“Without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country,” Trump told reporters earlier this week when asked to preview his address.

The broadcast networks carried Trump’s primetime address on April 1 about the war in Iran, but his July 4 speech on the National Mall, billed as a rally, did not get the same treatment.

A speech about election security — with reports that Trump will cite intelligence of foreign interference — puts the onus on networks to aggressively fact check if the president returns to unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Those claims led to the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and Fox News eventually settled a lawsuit brought by voting company Dominion after its hosts and guests amplified allegations that the company was involved in rigging.

Moreover, such a speech may very well get into the politics of the midterms. Democrats see Trump’s efforts to pass the SAVE America Act as a tactic to suppress voting. The SAVE America act would require documents like a birth certificate or passport in order to register to vote. There also is the fear that he’ll use the failure to pass the legislation — a scenario that seems likely — to try to sow doubt about the integrity of the midterms.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Thursday, “Something is really wrong with this guy. I think he actually needs to be checked out. Why does he continue to focus on a conspiracy theory related to a 2020 presidential election that every rational person in the United States of America knows he lost.”

The three major cable networks — Fox News, CNN and MS NOW — also have not announced their plans, although it’s expected that they will have at least some coverage during the hour, as they will be in the midst of their typical primetime news programming.