• dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    That’s true on a technicality, but everyone knows what he meant. In the 2020 election, Biden got ~7 million more votes than Trump in addition to winning the electoral college. Trump’s intent was to be intentionally misleading and to twist the qualifications to imply that he should have won last time when, in fact, he didn’t.

    • Nollij
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      8 days ago

      It’s a sobering detail of our situation. In 2020, Trump really did receive more votes than any candidate in any previous election. That means a ton of people showed up to vote for him in 2020 that hadn’t in 2016.

      He frames it weird (and it sounded weird when he said it) because otherwise it raises the obvious point that Biden also achieved that same record, plus an extra 7 million votes.

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        True, although population growth is a factor as well.

        Like, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more total votes than in 1990, just because there’s a lot more people. Let alone 1890. The “most ever” has pretty declining meaning after going back just a couple of decades.

        % of adult population would be more meaningful.

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      I agree. It’s technically true but intentionally misleading. That said, I think there are other, better examples to label as lies that don’t get into this gray area.