Stephen A. Battles Joy Behar, Explains Why Trump Has a Mandate

BEHAR: “And he’s been going around with his cronies touting his so-called landslide and blowout win. But he won the popular vote by 1.5 percent, one of the smallest ever, and he won the general election by less than 50 percent. So what kind of mandate is this really?”
Smith: “Well, it is a mandate, and I’m going to explain why. And I don’t mind the question, but let me be very clear. I’m no supporter of Trump, I’m a supporter of truth and the facts. And here’s the facts. The man won every swing state. He increased in terms of his voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos, and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. 80 nine percent of the county shifted to the right. That’s a mandate. We can sit up there and play around all we want to. In 2020, they didn’t — Trump didn’t win the popular vote. He didn’t win the Electoral College vote. A matter of fact, the Republicans had won the popular vote, if I remember correctly —”
HOSTIN: “20 years.”
Smith: “— in 2004. But they did this year. So 20 years after they last won a popular vote, they won the popular vote. They won the Electoral College Vote. The man won every swing state. And on top of it all, 89 percent of the counties shifted. I don’t understand how people can look at that and say there’s no mandate. There’s a mandate, when that shift —”
BEHAR: “Well, it’s a different definition of a mandate, I guess.”
Smith: “But the problem is that if you’re the Democratic Party and you lost 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent, you’re looking at that 1.5 percent, that’s an excuse for you to say, ‘What we did really wasn’t that bad.’“
HOSTIN: “Some people didn’t show up.”
Smith: “We should continue to do that. No, don’t continue to do it. Find a new strategy.”