Former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris rather dubiously claimed that she came up short in the “closest presidential election in the 21st Century” during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday night.
The assertion came as Harris explained that she penned her campaign memoir, 107 Days, because of the “unprecedented” nature of her candidacy.
“The sitting vice president enters the race against a former president of the United States who’s been running for 10 years, with 107 days to go. And it ended up being the closest presidential election in the 21st Century,” mused Harris as Maddow nodded along. “And there was so much about those 107 days that, for me, and this is really a behind-the-scenes look at those 107 days, was about seeing people who seemingly had nothing in common coming together by the thousands, with a level of optimism and, dare I say joy, about the possibilities for America. And I hope to remind people about that light that people brought to it, and to remind people that that light is still there.”
It’s unclear what metric Harris would use to back up this boast. Donald Trump bested Harris in the Electoral College last year, 312-226. Joe Biden and Harris prevailed over Trump by a margin of 306-232 in 2020. Trump beat Hillary Clinton, 304-227, in 2016. In fact, the only two elections decided
Harris wasn’t closer than any other loser in the popular vote, either. George W. Bush lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College in 2000, as did Trump in 2016.
And she wasn’t the closest to “tipping” the Electoral College — calculated by evaluating the shortest possible path to winning enough states to take the White House — falling short of the performances of Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, Clinton in 2016, and Trump in 2020.
Harris’s claim nevertheless went unchallenged by Maddow, the longtime political commentator and face of her network.
Watch above via MSNBC.