[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Election Security

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Donald Trump's election speech tonight is 
not about the election Trump lost 6 years ago; it is a threat against 
the election he is afraid to lose this November.
  Trump may control the microphone tonight, but he will not control the 
verdict in November. The voters will have the last word, and Senate 
Democrats will rebut Trump's lies every day. We will fight like hell to 
make sure Trump can't silence voters.
  Trump's prime-time speech tonight isn't simply about relitigating his 
overwhelming defeat in the 2020 election; it is about undermining the 
2026 election before a single vote has been cast. Trump won't expose 
anything of substance about 2020; he will just echo the same stale, 
baseless, pathetic lies he has repeated for 6 years.
  Donald, you have been trying this shtick for 6 years. Only your 
little coterie of sycophants still believes these lies--no one else.
  You can say it tonight, Trump. You can say it tonight. You can say it 
tomorrow. You can say it every night until election. No one believes 
you. The election was not stolen.
  Trump keeps chasing his tail, going round and round and round in 
circles so many times, he has left a rut in the ground. Every time he 
tells a lie, he digs himself deeper into the hole. Trump's fixation on 
these conspiracy theories reeks of desperation.
  Trump knows he can't defend Republicans' disastrous record--his 
disastrous record as well--so he is trying to discredit the voters who 
will judge it in November.
  Hey, Donald, the reason your numbers are so low is because you are 
obsessed with BS like this instead of what Americans actually care 
about.
  The American people are fed up with Donald Trump. Americans are fed 
up with the chaos in their streets, fed up with the corruption in their 
government, fed up with sky-high costs in every part of their lives 
because of this administration's policies. Voters are sick of forking 
over their tax dollars to line Trump's pockets and to fuel his failed 
war in Iran.
  Trump has given up on winning over hearts and minds. Now he is 
focused on rigging rules and purging voter rolls. Instead of changing 
course on their deeply unpopular agenda, Trump and the GOP have 
launched a coordinated, multifront campaign to subvert the 2026 
election.
  But don't worry, America, it will fail.
  Trump has called for Republicans to ``take over voting in 15 states 
in the country.'' That is what he said. Trump said:

       We want to take over. We should take over the voting. . . . 
     Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.

  It is in his own words.
  Trump has issued unlawful Executive orders to try to kill vote-by-
mail. The administration is packed to the rafters with election 
deniers, including key election oversight positions. MAGA loyalists 
like Todd Blanche and Kash Patel have used the DOJ and FBI to torment 
election officials and foment lies with politically motivated 
investigations designed to sow doubt and instill fear. Trump's 
Republican allies in Congress keep pushing the SAVE Act, the most 
devious voter-suppression legislation Trump has ever dreamed up.
  Donald, when it comes to the SAVE Act, the courts have rejected it, 
Congress has rejected it, and even members of your own party have 
rejected it. Give it up. The SAVE Act isn't going anywhere.
  There is no way we are letting this administration feed Americans' 
personal data into an algorithm Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Russell 
Vought created and let it pick who gets to vote.
  Donald Trump made life harder and more expensive for the American 
people, and now he wants to make sure the American people can't hold 
him accountable at the ballot box. That is what Trump's speech is about 
tonight. But in America, voters choose their leaders; leaders do not 
choose their voters.
  Senate Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure our 
elections belong to the voters, not to Donald Trump.
  The country does not belong to Donald Trump. The ballot does not 
belong to Donald Trump. The verdict does not belong to Donald Trump. It 
belongs to the American people. And this vote in November, they will 
deliver it.