Election Day November 5,2024

[Giantone]

Popular vote totals make Trump’s ‘mandate’ look like a mirage


https://news.yahoo.com/news/maddow-b...130359790.html


On the surface, the argument, such as it is, might seem unnecessary. Trump won, fair and square. He’ll have power and the ability to pursue his goals.

But the details matter. As things stand, according to the latest tally from the Cook Political Report, Trump won 49.86% of the popular vote — a margin of 1.6% over Vice President Kamala Harris. (The Democratic nominee, interestingly enough, came up short while winning a higher percentage of the popular vote than Trump received in 2016 or 2020.)

The bottom line is unambiguous: As a matter of arithmetic, the 2024 contest was a close race in which more Americans voted against him than for him.

This is relevant, not for practical reasons, but for political ones. Trump’s many critics can declare, accurately and honestly, to the nation and the world, that the incoming president lacks an electoral mandate. The incoming president and his allies, meanwhile, can try to claim that he's the one true voice of the nation, but the popular vote totals point in the opposite direction.

When some news organizations reported on 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 minimize President Trump’s massive and historic victory to try to delegitimize his mandate before he even takes the Oath of Office again.”

But the pushback is baseless. There’s nothing “fake” about actual election results, whether Republicans approve of them or not. Using the word “mandate” over and over again will not change the outcome or make Trump's coming overreach any less outrageous.