This week in Washington: Trump raises election doubts ahead of US midterms

U.S. President Donald Trump brought his unproven claims of election malfeasance to primetime last night in a televised address to the nation. It was his first such speech since early April when he claimed the war in Iran was over. All of this coming amid fresh controversy on the domestic front as well as uncertainty over a new trade corridor connecting Michigan and Ontario. To break it all down for us, we're joined by Global's Washington correspondent Reggie Cicchini. Reggie, let's start with that primetime speech last night. What was the main message? Well, Jane, look, the president had billed this as something that was going to give Americans new information on the integrity of the United States election system. But realistically, what we heard from the president was information that was largely known already put out there by the U.S. Intelligence Committee. Donald Trump tried to make this allegation that China, along with other nations, including Iran and Russia, had meddled in elections in the past. But he did not kind of tie any connections or make any dots connected to any potential movement in elections. Essentially, what the president was trying to do was send a message to Republicans that America's election system needs to be protected. It was a push to try and get the so-called SAVE Act out there, even though Republicans in the past have said this is something they're not likely going to move forward with. Essentially, this was a suggest that America's elections are not safe, with Democrats already coming out to say that the president was trying to impact the upcoming midterm elections before the first vote is even cast. And all this while the war with Iran continues. What do we know about Trump's plans for the Strait of Hormuz? Well, I mean, look, they've been changing over the last couple of days. Earlier in the week, we heard the president suggest that maybe the United States was going to charge a toll for helping Gulf nations get their tankers through the Strait. And this is something that he's obviously been pushing back against Iran on, suggesting that Iran can't charge a toll. And the United Nations has been pretty vocal about this to say that nobody should be charging a toll to get through an international waterway. Trump then changed his tune to say maybe these Gulf nations are going to spend billions of dollars investing in the United States in some kind of quid pro quo, although it's not clear any Gulf nations will be on board with that, because until this war started, Jaden, they didn't actually have to pay anything to get their energy products out of the Strait of Hormuz and into the rest of the world. It's all thrown energy markets and global markets into new volatile territory. We've seen that with oil and gas prices creeping up. The bigger question here is what does the American military do going forward? We've seen five or six nights consistently of strikes around Iran. And there are now questions as to whether the United States president is going to move this further, with the reporting suggesting that close allies to him are suggesting maybe a ground movement of troops on the nearby islands or Iran proper itself to potentially try to bend Iran or bring Iran to its knees. But analysts have told me this week, Jaden, that that would come with significant risk and cost not only to American military infrastructure, but to personnel as well. OK, now on the domestic front, more people are being killed during ICE traffic stops. Now, Reggie, those had been halted for a while after several tragedies. Why is this happening again? So look, we saw two instances this week, both in Maine and Texas, of people being killed during a traffic stop. ICE has obviously been under significant scrutiny this year because of the sheer volume of people that have died during traffic stops or incidents around the country. In the moments after we saw what took place this week, the border czar, Tom Holman, said that there would be a temporary pause on these traffic stops. That was almost immediately overturned by President Trump, who argued that this is an essential tool for ICE to be able to go after people. The issue is the two people that died this week were not the target, not subject to any kind of warrant of ICE. And this appeared to be a tragic circumstance, which is now under investigation. But it goes to show that this is a president and an administration that is still eager to crack down on what it believes to be issues to do with border and border security and immigration levels. And the question now going forward is, is there going to be any reform? Remember, this was a key thing for Democrats. They wanted ICE reform. They weren't able to fully get that. We don't even have body cameras yet on many of these ICE agents. So this is something that's likely going to continue to dog not only the president, but the potential of the Republican Party as we walk towards the midterms. OK, this next story impacting a lot of Canadians here in Canada, the Gordie Howe Bridge remains in focus. It's due to open before the end of this month, but we're hearing about the financial terms of this opening. It seems quite different on both either side of the border. Yeah, Jayden, look, the president stalled the opening of this bridge earlier this year because he suggested he wanted a better deal for Americans. The Canadian government says that once the debt is paid off because Canada fronted the cost for this bridge and once maintenance costs are dealt with, then revenues will be split with the United States. The American government, according to reports this week, believes that this is not going to have anything to do with debt servicing and the money is going to be split almost immediately. We still have the Canadian government, Prime Minister Mark Carney, suggesting that this is a great deal for Canadians and that Canada is going to come out on top, even though the Americans are trying to say that they're going to get a bigger share of the cash here. So we're waiting to see what the ultimate final documents are going to look like. Still, the fact that the bridge is finally reopening after months of delays is going to be a moment here for both sides of the border. It was another big week. We'll leave it there for today. Our Washington correspondent Reggie Cicchini. Thank you.