Trump's projected defeat will not be the worst in US history. Not even close.
Perspective.
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CNN’s Chris Cuomo is wrong about basic U.S. history. Again.
Look, no one ever said nepots were smart.
On Thursday, Cuomo gloated about President Trump's likely defeat, claiming the incumbent is on track to suffer the worst electoral loss of any U.S. presidential candidate.
This is not even close to being true.
“Already Joe Biden has received more votes than anybody else ever for president of the United States,” said Cuomo. “Why? Because this is a national change moment that is going on. On both sides. We have not seen passions like this, a sense of purpose like this, money like this, organization like this, structure like this. So, you got the most out of it.”
He added [emphasis added], “The biggest has to be you, your friends, family, the people in the communities. You came out in a way that certainly defied my expectations and many of the experts. You blew away turnout models. Amazing. Huge rejection for Donald Trump. Nobody has ever gotten the spanking that he is getting in the general right now.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter later promoted the falsehood, calling it a “vivid comment.”
If by “vivid” he means “incorrect based on every available metric,” then, yes, it is certainly a “vivid comment.”
Here are the facts:
As of this writing, more than 73 million votes have been tallied for Biden. That’s a new record. The only other presidential candidate who comes close is, well, Trump, who currently boasts of an estimated 70 million votes in the 2020 election. For perspective, both Trump and Biden have beat the previous record set in 2008 by former President Barack Obama.
In other words, Biden’s current totals signal an unprecedented rejection of Trump so long as you ignore the fact that the president right now has the second-most votes of any presidential candidate in U.S. history, not that far behind the 2020 Democratic nominee. This is a function of the population growing over time.
Some "spanking."
Speaking of the popular vote, Trump’s likely defeat is not even close to being the worst in U.S. history. The president is currently on track to lose the popular vote by approximately 4 million. Trump may even end up losing it by as much as 7 million after all the votes are counted. Though that is not great for Trump, it is hardly the worst shellacking in U.S. history.
Again, perspective.
George McGovern lost the popular vote in 1972 by an estimated 18 million votes. Walter Mondale lost in 1984 by 16.8 million. Barry Goldwater lost in 1964 by 16 million votes. It goes on. Alf Landon lost the popular vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 by 11 million votes; Adlai Stevenson lost in 1956 by 9.5 million; John McCain lost in 2008 by 9.5 million; and Bob Dole lost in 1996 by 8 million.
McGovern's defeat is one of the most infamous (if not the most infamous) in American history due to the sheer size and scope of his failure. How does one anchor a news program and think that what is happening in the 2020 election is even comparable to 1972, let alone worse?
But none of those presidential nominees mentioned in the above were incumbent presidents!
We can account for that clarifier as well.
Jimmy Carter lost the popular vote to Ronald Reagan in 1980 by 8.4 million votes. Herbert Hoover lost to FDR in 1932 by 7 million votes. George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 by 5.8 million.
And we have not even accounted yet for vote tallies as a percentage of the total vote!
In 1964, when 70 million total ballots were cast, Lyndon Johnson won 43 million votes. That means LBJ won 61% of the vote. In 1972, Richard Nixon also won 61%. In 1984, Ronald Reagan took 58%. In 2020, as it appears as many as 150 million people may have voted in the 2020 election, Biden stands poised to win anywhere between 48% and 52% of all ballots cast, which is impressive but by no means groundbreaking.
Lastly, we can also look at vote totals as a percentage of the voting population.
In 1964, the voting-eligible population stood at around 114 million. That means LBJ won 37.7% of all possible votes in the U.S. In 1972, Nixon won 33%. In 1984, Reagan won 31%. In 2020, with the voting-eligible population in the U.S. standing at around 239 million, Biden will eventually take somewhere between 30% and 32% of the total available vote, which, again, is no small thing but also not historic.
In conclusion, based on every available metric, Cuomo’s assertion Thursday that “nobody has ever gotten the spanking” that Trump “is getting in the general right now” has no basis in fact. There is simply no way to dress up the statement, no possible qualifier, that makes it even remotely true. Cuomo is just wrong.
Do they have books and/or the internet at CNN?