Try and Stop Us Digest — July 20, 2026
Your daily brief on the fight for the vote: DHS Secretary Mullin threatens election officials with prison, Trump's declassified “evidence” collapses under scrutiny, aides raced to water down the “crazier shit” in his speech, and the SAVE Act push falls flat.
Voters should pick their leaders — not the other way around. We're here to make sure they do. Just try and stop us. Here's your daily brief on the fight for the vote.
Driving the News
Must Read
Mullin Threatens Election Officials With Prison
New York Times: A day after Trump's speech, his Homeland Security chief threatened election officials with prison time. Local officials who don't act on DHS's noncitizen-voter claims, Mullin warned, “can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time.”
Trump's “Evidence” Collapses Under Scrutiny
ABC News: DHS's own declassified documents undercut the vulnerability claims Trump used them to make. The intelligence reports Trump released concluded election infrastructure “would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to alter the election outcome” — the opposite of what he claimed.
PolitiFact: The “250,000 noncitizens” on the voting rolls number has been used before — and it collapsed by 99% under scrutiny. In 2012, Florida's initial list of 180,000 “potential noncitizens” shrank to 85 names after review. Elections expert David Becker says the commercial data used for the current comparison “is going to create a lot of false matches.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: In Georgia, most of DHS's “noncitizen voters” were never voters at all. Of roughly 2,500 people DHS flagged, only about 150 had ever actually cast a ballot — out of 8.1 million registered voters statewide.
Reuters: Federal prosecutors have charged 129 people for noncitizen voting since 1996 — two-thirds of those cases came under Trump, and none involved a coordinated plot. Most cases traced back to clerical errors, bad advice from DMV clerks, or voters who believed green cards made them eligible. “We aren't finding what they think is out there,” said a Texas election administrator.
Trump's Aides Raced to Water Down the “Crazier Shit” in His Speech
Politico: Trump's election speech was toned down after Bill Pulte wanted to name and endanger analysts. Acting DNI Bill Pulte pushed to publicly name officials he accused of hiding evidence from Trump — until aides warned it could get people killed. “Pulte got really scared by the whole thing and pulled back,” a senior official said. “There was going to be a lot of crazier shit said.”
NOTUS: The White House's own point man on the documents couldn't say Trump actually won in 2020 — “not yet.” John Solomon, the special government employee reviewing the declassified files, was asked outside the White House if there's evidence Trump won the 2020 election. His answer: “Not yet.”
Politico: Trump blamed China for “the largest” election data breach in history — then told investigators to leave China alone. Trump accused Beijing of “the largest compromise of election data in history,” but a White House adviser told reporters the investigation will target “nefarious actors domestically,” not China — and Trump is still set to host Xi Jinping in Washington this September.
The EAC Firings Were a Year in the Making
Reuters: Trump vetted election deniers as replacements before firing EAC leaders. Cleta Mitchell — who worked with Trump's team to overturn his 2020 loss — recommended a fellow election denier, Patrice Johnson, as a future commissioner months before the firings, and ODNI officials grilled the agency over why it called the 2020 election “secure.”
Trump's Speech Was Supposed to Move Republicans on the SAVE Act. It Didn't
New York Times: Even Fox News buried the speech the next morning — and the one Republican senator whose vote Trump most needs says it didn't move her at all. “If it was meant to influence people like me, it didn't get me there,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski — even Fox & Friends buried the speech the next morning, opening instead with Iran and wildfire smoke.
In the States
Minnesota: Trump's Pick for Governor Isn't Registered to Vote in Minnesota
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Mike Lindell has an active voter registration in Texas and didn't know his own status in Minnesota. “I'm not going to vote twice,” he said, after Trump's endorsement made him the instant primary front-runner for governor of Minnesota. Lindell has spent years hosting “election integrity events” telling others to scrutinize voter rolls.
What Experts Are Saying
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Vice Chair, Senate Intelligence Committee: On why Jay Clayton's election denial sank his vote: “I've known Jay for a long time. I like him, but after his performance before my committee, his inability to answer the question about who won the 2020 election… I am not going to vote for him.” (Newsweek)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska): On why the SAVE Act would be a logistical nightmare for her own constituents: “Say you are an 18-year-old living in Savoonga, on a remote island in the Bering Sea, who wants to register to vote for the first time. If the SAVE America Act passed, your only option would be to buy a ticket on Bering Air to Nome, which runs about $780 round-trip… it would cost more than $1,000 just to register to vote.” (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: “President Trump broke into prime-time TV on Thursday night to talk to the nation about election security, but it must have been a letdown for anybody expecting a thrilling plot twist in Mr. Trump's long yarn about his 2020 defeat. Instead he made a sales pitch for a bill that can't pass, using doubts it wouldn't address.”
Headlines
Trump's Speech
The Atlantic: Trump's plan for November is failing
Newsweek: Trump cabinet secretary, DNI nominee differ on Biden's 2020 win
MS Now: Trump revived his election lies. The people who run elections are bracing for the midterms.
NOTUS: Trump's election-tampering claims fall flat, including with Republicans
Roll Call: Election fraud & vote rigging: 2,977 claims, 132 races, zero convictions
The Guardian: DHS secretary doubles down on Trump's baseless 2020 election claims
Washington Post: Trump says 278,000 noncitizens are on voting rolls. Experts say that's wrong.
Associated Press: DHS Secretary Mullin says he'll chase voter fraud after Trump revives election claims
Courts
The Hill: Appeals court narrows setback for Trump USPS mail-in ballot policy
In the States
American Doom: How a small-town Facebook comment led to a Georgia election investigation
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