Recently, Nielsen ratings revealed that more people seem to have watched the Democratic National Convention (DNC) than the Republican National Convention (RNC) across major television networks. According to the data, 23.4 million television viewers tuned into Trump’s speech in which he formally accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, but 24.6 million viewers watched Democratic presidential pick Joe Biden accepting his own party’s nomination the previous week. (The GOP didn’t fare better when averaging the respective conventions’ total viewers each night.) Despite these facts, Trump melted down on Twitter this Wednesday in apparent response to a Lincoln Project ad pointing out the low ratings.
He tweeted:
‘We had FAR more people (many millions) watching us at the RNC than did Sleepy Joe and the DNC, and yet an ad just ran saying the opposite. This is what we’re up against. Lies. But we will WIN!’
We had FAR more people (many millions) watching us at the RNC than did Sleepy Joe and the DNC, and yet an ad just ran saying the opposite. This is what we’re up against. Lies. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020
The Trump campaign has touted supposed total viewership numbers for their convention proceedings that include online views. However, anyone who’s anywhere in the world can be responsible for an online view — online views are a lot less relevant to the U.S. presidential race than U.S.-based views on U.S.-based television channels. According to that metric, Trump lost, plain and simple: on average, the RNC garnered 19.4 million television viewers a night, while the DNC had an average of 21.6 viewers a night. Both totals (and the total television viewers for Trump and Biden’s speeches) are lower than the 2016 levels, but Democrats still led.
Check out the Lincoln Project ad that may have set off the president below:
On Wednesday morning, Trump also complained about a video tape that has emerged showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) utilizing the services of a California beauty salon that was apparently closed at the time to everyday customers. (Salons in the area were apparently allowed to reopen, for outdoor services only, just recently.) While on the premises, she at least temporarily did not have personal protective gear on. Pelosi’s office acknowledged the incident, saying that they’d been told by someone at the salon that having one customer inside the salon at a time was allowed, although that interpretation of local COVID rules was actually incorrect.
It’s worth noting — while the issue over Pelosi’s usage of a hair salon stems from an isolated instance of privately taped developments, Trump spent months publicly downplaying the threat of the Coronavirus, and it took him months to even endorse wearing face masks, which is a very basic step.
The Beauty Parlor owner must really dislike Crazy Nancy Pelosi. Turning her in, on tape, is a really big deal. She probably treats him like she treats everyone else…And she strongly supported a Kennedy who just lost in, of all places, Massachusetts!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below: