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Donald Trump’s latest event in North Carolina was ostensibly supposed to focus on manufacturing and job creation, but true to form, the Republican candidate strayed from his script.
This included some curious comments about the results of the 2020 presidential election:
We did much better, by the way, in the election of 2020, than we did in 2016. Just remember that. Millions and millions of votes more — more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country. But they beat us by a whisker. They beat us just by a little whisker. He beat us from the basement.
For the record, his assessment was uncharacteristically accurate. In 2016, the Republican ticket received roughly 63 million votes, which worked out to be approximately 46% of the popular vote. Four years later, amid higher turnout, Trump finished with more than 74 million votes — which would’ve been great, were it not for the fact that Joe Biden finished with more than 81 million votes.
Nevertheless, as a video excerpt of the GOP candidate’s comments makes clear, he didn’t appear to be kidding.
And that’s what makes this story rather weird.
About a month ago, Trump appeared at a far-right event in Washington and said, in reference to Biden, “He beat us by a whisker. It was a terrible thing.” Five days later, the former president said effectively the same thing, telling a podcaster that he had “lost by a whisker” in 2020.
As just about everyone familiar with American politics knows, Trump has waged a relentless campaign against his 2020 defeat, desperately trying to convince the public that he secretly won the race he actually lost. The former president has lied about this so often and with such ferocity that it’s become known as the Republican’s “big lie.”
All of which made it odd when he started telling people — out loud and in public — that he lost to Biden “by a whisker.”
This came up during the recent presidential debate, when ABC News’ David Muir reminded Trump of his “by a whisker” rhetoric. The GOP nominee immediately pushed back.
“I said that sarcastically,” Trump replied. “You know that. It was said, ‘Oh, we lost by a whisker.’ That was said sarcastically.”
The response didn’t make sense. The former president has long struggled to understand what “sarcasm” actually means, and this didn’t help. The videos of Trump’s public comments made clear that he was not, in fact, being sarcastic.
And now, he has said the same thing once again, without a hint of sarcasm or intended humor.
As for the potential legal relevance, The New Republic noted, “Of course, it’s important to know that pretty much every time Trump opens his mouth, his words are admissible in court. So admitting that he didn’t win the election could potentially hurt the former president in court — specifically, in his election interference case in Washington, D.C., where special counsel [Jack] Smith is seeking to prove that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election but still tried to overturn the results.”