As the latest episode of NBC News’ “Meet the Press” began, host Kristen Welker welcomed Senator Eric Schmitt to the program. Normally, guests respond with a few brief pleasantries before the interview begins in earnest, but the Missouri Republican went a different direction.
Before Welker even asked her first question, the Republican senator began by declaring that Donald Trump had won “a mandate” in this year’s presidential election. As the segment unfolded, Schmitt repeated this phrase more than once, bragging that the president-elect received a “mandate… from the American people.”
Around the same time, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee took a similar line on ABC News’ “This Week,” telling Jonathan Karl that Trump had been given an “overwhelming” electoral mandate.
The Senators have a lot of company. Immediately after his victory, Trump claimed that the American electorate had delivered an “unprecedented mandate,” and numerous Republican Party voices have since echoed this line.
The problem, of course, is that reality keeps getting in our way. The New York Times published a compelling analysis explaining that the Republicans’ victory was “neither unprecedented nor a landslide.”
In fact, he prevailed by one of the narrowest margins of victory in the popular vote since the 19th century, generating little of the impact of a real landslide. The disconnect goes beyond Trump’s predictable boasts. The incoming president and his team are trying to reinforce the impression of a “sounding margin,” as one aide called it, to make Mr. Trump appear more popular than he is and to strengthen his hand in pushing his agenda in the coming months. .
On the surface, this argument, as it stands, may seem unnecessary. Trump won, fair and square. He will have the power and ability to pursue his goals.
But the details are important. As things stand, according to the latest figures from the Cook Political Report, Trump won 49.86% of the vote – a 1.6% margin over Vice President Kamala Harris. Arithmetically speaking, it was a close race in which more Americans voted against him than for him.
This is not relevant for practical reasons, but for political reasons. Trump’s many critics can accurately and honestly declare to the nation and the world that the new president has no electoral mandate.
When some news organizations reported this last week, Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, responded via social media: “New Fake News Narrative Alert! … The fake news is trying to downplay President Trump’s massive and historic victory and trying to delegitimize his mandate before he even takes the oath of office again.”
But the backlash is unfounded. There is nothing “fake” about the actual election results, whether Republicans approve them or not. Using the word “mandate” over and over again will change the outcome.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
