Wild Card After Speech: Effect on November Midterms

President Trump spent a lot of time revisiting his 2020 loss to Joe Biden in his Thursday night speech alleging widespread election fraud. Critics immediately countered that Trump was re-airing already debunked conspiracies. One theme in coverage Friday focuses not on the past but on what Trump's renewed focus on the subject might mean for the crucial November midterms. A sampling:

• Trump's team believes that talking anew about fraud will motivate his base to turn out at the polls, reports Axios. But the story notes much skepticism about that outside the White House. "It's a stupid, stupid move," one Republican pollster tells the outlet. Focus groups suggest that even swing voters who might believe the 2020 vote wasn't fully legit want to move on. "When they listen to Trump, they just have an eyeroll," the pollster says.

• In an essay at the Conversation, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau writes that Trump seems intent on "delegitimizing the upcoming elections," factoring in his recent move to oust the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, a federal body that, among other things, certifies voting machines. He notes that Trump's press secretary sidestepped a question Thursday on whether the president would accept the November results.
• A New York Times analysis makes a similar point, noting that Republicans face serious losses in the midterms. "Trump seems intent on laying a predicate that, at the least, could explain away a defeat and, at most, his critics fear, potentially justify direct intervention aimed at changing the results," writes Peter Baker. It's a common tactic "to cast doubt on the electoral rules of the game where many populist authoritarians feel threatened by unpopularity at the polls or if the results declare them the loser at the ballot," adds Pippa Norris, a co-founder of the Election Integrity Project.
• "Tonight seems to be the ceremonial kickoff of President Trump's campaign to interfere in the November election," wrote Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on X.