Donald Trump has demanded an apology from Kamala Harris for claiming that their encounter last November “ended up being the closest presidential election in the 21st century.”
Harris made that comment Monday night on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, were she stopped by in part to promote her book about her brief and ill-fated 2024 campaign, 107 Days.
The former vice president didn’t explain how she arrived at that conclusion, and Trump has since taken offense.
“Everyone knows this is a lie,” he fumed in a Truth Social post Wednesday. Trump pointed to his wins in the Electoral College, all seven of the widely agreed-upon battleground states, and in the popular vote—while falsely claiming that California’s mail-in ballot process was “rigged” against him.
The 2020 election denier also included his county margin of victory, and attached a mostly red map—one which didn’t reflect population density.
“Kamala’s ‘closest in the 21st Century’ soundbite was, like everything else in the Democrat Party, A TOTAL LIE!” he continued. “I expect an apology.”
By several indicators, last year’s contest wasn’t the closest since 2000. Of the seven elections held from that year on, the 2024 Electoral College margin of 312-226 was the fifth smallest. The popular vote difference of 1.5 percent was also larger than in 2000, when Al Gore won it by 0.5 percent—but still lost the election to George W. Bush.
Additionally, Harris trailed several winning candidates—including Trump in 2016—regarding the path to reach the Electoral College threshold. In 2000, the “tipping point” state of Florida was decided by just 537 votes. In 2020, Joe Biden’s closest successful results were in Georgia, Arizona and the “tipping point” state of Wisconsin, which he won by a combined 42,918 votes. But in 2024, Trump won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by 229,766 votes.
Harris’ office did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast asking for evidence to support her claim about last year’s election, as well as whether she would apologize.
The post Trump Melts Down Over Harris’ Strange Election Claim appeared first on The Daily Beast.
