I know it’s not a hu-u-u-u-ge deal.
However, I feel the need to set the record straight on another one of those prevarications that flew out of Donald J. Trump’s mouth.
The president called a press conference today and spoke — and jousted — with the media for more than an hour. Among the mistruths he spoke today dealt with his assertion that his Electoral College victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton was the biggest “since Ronald Reagan.”
Uh, Mr. President, no sir. It isn’t. Not by a long, long shot.
Let’s review, shall we?
1984: PresidentĀ Reagan was re-elected with 525 electoral votes.
1988: Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected with 426 electoral votes.
1992: Bill Clinton was elected with 370 electoral votes.
1996: President Clinton was re-elected with 379 electoral votes.
2008: Barack Obama won with 365 electoral votes.
2012: President Obama was re-elected with 332 electoral votes.
2016: Donald Trump won with 304 electoral votes.
There are the numbers. Trump’s victory wasn’t the biggest since Reagan. Oh, here are some more numbers to put Trump’s victory into, um, a little different perspective.
Clinton collected 2.8 million more popular votes than Trump. The president’s victory was sealed in three states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — which he won by a total of 77,000 votes, out of more than 120 million ballots cast nationally.
If Clinton had won those states, she would have been elected. She lost them to Trump. I am acutely aware that Trump won the contest where it counted, so please spare me the lecture and accusation that I’m still choking on all those sour grapes.
A reporter — NBC’s Peter Alexander — today challenged Trump’s statement about the size of his victory. The president said he was referring only to “Republican” presidents. Oh. I see. Then Bush 41’s victory didn’t count?
Trump’s bogus assertion about the size of his victory isn’t a big deal by itself. It does illustrate the man’s propensity for playing fast and loose with facts.
Perhaps, though, they merely are those “alternative facts” to which his senior policy adviser, Kellyanne Conway, referred.