In sheer volume of words spoken, Donald J. Trump dominated this election. New data shows just how big the gap was with Kamala Harris.
We don’t know whether his loquaciousness helped him win, hindered him or had no effect. But the data also supports what has been reported about how each campaign spent its time across events and interviews.
In total, Mr. Trump spent roughly 172 hours speaking in his public and media appearances on or after July 23, according to aggregated data from Roll Call FactBa.se. Ms. Harris’s speaking time totaled about 69 hours.
Ms. Harris had to spend time preparing to take over the Biden campaign apparatus, then prioritized in-person appearances. She made more of those than Mr. Trump, showing up across the country at barbershops, restaurants, funerals and church services, in addition to her rallies. But her remarks were often brief. Mr. Trump’s were, as per usual, long.
And he outpaced her on interviews in both more traditional media (television and radio) and newer forms (podcasts and streaming).
For both candidates, the data set includes only events recorded on video or audio, and it counts some moments when the candidates weren’t speaking, such as when interviewers were asking questions. Some events, such as press gaggles and the Harris-Trump debate, aren’t included.
Rallies, speeches, town halls and other in-person events
Both candidates drew large crowds to arenas across the country. But Ms. Harris typically spoke for a half-hour or less. Mr. Trump’s appearances easily stretched to an hour and a half or two hours. (Here, we’ve included the half-hour he spent listening to music onstage as speaking time.)
Ms. Harris had a distinct lead in the number of smaller, in-person campaign events. She met with emergency workers in North Carolina, students in Wisconsin, and diners in Philadelphia. She spoke near a semiconductor plant in Michigan, delivered a eulogy for Representative Sheila Jackson Lee in Houston and joined a teleconference call with Black women.
Mr. Trump, too, did these kinds of events, though somewhat fewer: He stopped in at a restaurant in Virginia and a grocery store in Pennsylvania; he spoke to the Fraternal Order of Police in North Carolina and held a town hall in Wisconsin; and he drew headlines when he visited a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania just before the election.
Television and radio appearances
Mr. Trump’s television and radio count is bolstered by more than two dozen appearances on Fox News, Fox Business and Fox News Radio. But even if you exclude those, he still sat for more television and radio interviews than Ms. Harris.
His appearances included multiple interviews on Newsmax, the cable news channel that in 2020 spread false claims of election fraud, as well as numerous local radio and TV stations. Not all of those were in the most competitive states: Just two weeks before the election, Mr. Trump called into the radio station WABC in New York.
Ms. Harris also made local television and radio stops in swing states. She also sat for interviews with Spanish-language broadcasters, spoke with Charlamagne tha God on his radio show about the concerns of Black Americans, and went on Fox News.
Podcast and streaming interviews
Mr. Trump’s podcast and streaming interviews were a small portion of his total speaking time. But the campaign saw them as an important tool; in his victory speech, Mr. Trump mentioned podcasters and streamers by name, including Joe Rogan and Theo Von.
Among his other interviewers: the former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and the M.I.T. computer scientist Lex Fridman. He also held a livestream with Adin Ross, a young internet personality who also got a mention in last week’s victory speech.
Ms. Harris, too, was interviewed on podcasts. Her most high-profile event was joining “Call Her Daddy,” a popular show aimed at young women. She also spoke with the researcher and author Brené Brown, the former N.F.L. star Shannon Sharpe and the former N.B.A. players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes. But in the end, she did far fewer than Mr. Trump.
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