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This might be the most embarrassing document created by a White House staffer
Politics • Analysis
This might be the most embarrassing document created by a White House staffer
By Philip Bump
Dec. 18, 2020 at 2:10 p.m. EST
The first thing I did when I cracked open White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s 30-page compilation of President Trump’s voter-fraud greatest hits was check a footnote. The introduction claimed that, as of midnight on Election Day, Trump looked to be “well on his way to winning a second term,” given that he “was already a lock to win both Florida and Ohio.”
“No Republican has ever won a presidential election without winning Ohio,” the document notes, “while only two Democrats have won the presidency without winning Florida.”
I was curious about the source for that claim, so I checked Footnote 3. And, lo and behold, the source was … me, writing in 2016.
Of course, my point wasn’t that winning Ohio and Florida were a guarantee of victory. Instead, I was pointing out that there were certain states that Democrats and Republicans usually won before winning the presidency. Navarro’s right that no Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio — but plenty of Democrats have, rendering his point entirely moot. And that’s even assuming that his point was useful at all anyway, which we shouldn’t. Bill Clinton lost Florida in 1992 while winning the presidency. Joe Biden did it this year, meaning that in one-fourth of the past eight elections it has happened. Hardly something particularly remarkable.
But this, in broad strokes, is how Navarro’s document operates. It throws out as near-certainties things that are unfounded, misrepresented or unimportant.
{snip}
Philip Bump
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Follow https://twitter.com/pbump
This might be the most embarrassing document created by a White House staffer
By Philip Bump
Dec. 18, 2020 at 2:10 p.m. EST
The first thing I did when I cracked open White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s 30-page compilation of President Trump’s voter-fraud greatest hits was check a footnote. The introduction claimed that, as of midnight on Election Day, Trump looked to be “well on his way to winning a second term,” given that he “was already a lock to win both Florida and Ohio.”
“No Republican has ever won a presidential election without winning Ohio,” the document notes, “while only two Democrats have won the presidency without winning Florida.”
I was curious about the source for that claim, so I checked Footnote 3. And, lo and behold, the source was … me, writing in 2016.
Of course, my point wasn’t that winning Ohio and Florida were a guarantee of victory. Instead, I was pointing out that there were certain states that Democrats and Republicans usually won before winning the presidency. Navarro’s right that no Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio — but plenty of Democrats have, rendering his point entirely moot. And that’s even assuming that his point was useful at all anyway, which we shouldn’t. Bill Clinton lost Florida in 1992 while winning the presidency. Joe Biden did it this year, meaning that in one-fourth of the past eight elections it has happened. Hardly something particularly remarkable.
But this, in broad strokes, is how Navarro’s document operates. It throws out as near-certainties things that are unfounded, misrepresented or unimportant.
{snip}
Philip Bump
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Follow https://twitter.com/pbump
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