Over a week after the midterm elections, President Donald Trump continues to try to sell people on the idea of it being a big win for him. On Friday, after Republicans lost another seat in the House of Representatives and are poised to lose at least two more, Trump took to Twitter.
The President claimed people in the United States did not see his big win because they were not being told about it by the "fake news." While full election results are readily available, Trump blamed the media for the lack of accolades he received.
So he boosted his numbers slightly on Twitter when he posted:
"People are not being told that the Republican Party is on track to pick up two seats in the U.S. Senate, and epic victory: 53 to 47. The Fake News Media only wants to speak of the House, where the Midterm results were better than other sitting Presidents."
Reactions to the President's claim were swift.
People took exception to the President's math and his assumptions.
According to the latest results, the GOP will control 51 seats in the Senate and the Democrats—with two independents that caucus with them in Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine—47 seats. One seat is dependent on a run-off election in Mississippi between incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Mike Espy.
Senator Hyde-Smith made news several times recently for comments about eagerly attending a lynching and voter suppression. Hyde-Smith claimed both comments were jokes. Hyde-Smith's reelection after the run-off is not guaranteed.
One other Senate race is involved in a recount in Florida between Governor Rick Scott and incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. Scott lead Nelson 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent, or a 0.2 percent difference.
The slim margin required a recount be done. During the recount process, a judge ruled ballots rejected by the Republican lead Secretary of State's office in Florida must be considered in the recount. With a margin of only 12,603 votes separating them, a full count of all ballots does not assure a Rick Scott victory either.
As of now, the President can only claim a 51 to 47 victory in the Senate, with the GOP flipping three seats blue to red, but Democrats flipping two seats red to blue. While in the House, Democrats flipped 36 seats from red to blue and flipped 7 Governors.
And a gain in the Senate is a smaller victory based on the numbers of seats up for election. All 435 seats in the House were up for reelection. Democrats won 231 seats to Republicans 198 seats, with 6 still undecided.
In the Senate, only 35 seats were up for a vote. But the majority of them were in the Democratic Party. 42 GOP Senate seats were not up for reelection in the 2018 midterms.
In total, Republicans won 9 seats in the Senate during the midterm elections to add to the 42 they already had. Democrats won 24 seats in the Senate during the 2018 midterms, to add to the 23 they already had.
The DNC may not have won the Senate, but they did record more overall victories in every category of the 2018 midterms.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter