With Georgia and North Carolina officially called by media outlets, Joe Biden is projected to take control of the White House with 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 232. As noted by The Week , Trump called this margin of victory a “landslide” in 2016 in many public appearances that seem to have come back to haunt him.
CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski posted a clip of Trump’s comments on Twitter Friday afternoon.
306 is a landslide victory, says Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/Lp4OAiOPLV
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 13, 2020
“We had a tremendous landslide Electoral College victory, like people haven’t seen in a long time,” Trump said during a speech while he addressed his defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Not only did we win the election, we had an Electoral College landslide,” he said at a Turning Point USA event.
“They lost an election and they lost it big. It was really a landslide from the Electoral College standpoint,” he said while speaking to reporters.
Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, also tweeted about the success in 2016.
“306. Landslide. Blowout. Historic,” she wrote.
As reported by Newsweek , many took to social media to use Conway’s tweet against the Trump administration in the wake of Biden’s projected win.
“[Y]ou need to convince your guy to walk away graciously & have one moment of putting country before self in his legacy,” wrote lawyer Joyce Alene.
“History repeats! Looking forward @KellyannePolls to your gracious statement in support of our President-elect,” tweeted professor Michael McFaul.
Per USA Today , Biden broke the record for the number of votes received by a U.S. presidential candidate. As of Friday afternoon, Biden had over 77,000,000 ballots, while Trump had over 72,000,000. Previously, Barack Obama held the title for most votes received for his triumph in 2008, when he gained approximately 69.5 million votes.
In his 2016 win, Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million ballots. However, he defeated the former secretary of state due to his Electoral College performance. Along with Trump, George W. Bush is another past president who won the White House without the popular vote. Prior to Bush, such a victory hadn’t happened since 1888 when Republican Benjamin Harrison defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland.
Trump continues to refuse to concede the race to Biden. Although the president has claimed that the election was influenced by widespread fraud, he has yet to provide sufficient evidence to support his claims. In addition, reporting from The New York Times suggested that the head of state is attempting to delaying the certification of the results to rile up his base before he announces a 2024 presidential run.