While the Harris-Walz campaign largely failed to articulate its policy positions, Donald Trump made clear throughout the 2024 election cycle what his priorities would be as president. As such, he said winning the election would signal the American people are aligned with his vision.
And the fact that he decisively won the White House – while also helping Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate – has led many to consider his success a “mandate.” The president said so much during his Joint Address to Congress on Tuesday, but count The View’s Joy Behar among those who don’t see it that way. She tried to argue that Trump does not have a “mandate” because of his margin of victory but was quickly shut down by an unlikely fact-checker.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by 2Way’s Mark Halperin to discuss the left’s ongoing denial about Trump’s win and why it will hurt Democrats going forward.
Smith Schools The View
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is not a Trump supporter, but he was able to contextualize his success – and, conversely, the Democrats’ failures – during an appearance on The View this week. After Behar claimed Trump did not win a “mandate” because his popular vote victory was “the smallest ever” and Republicans only hold a slim majority in Congress, Smith broke down the makings of the president’s success.
“Well, it is a mandate and I’m going to explain why,” Smith said. “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 voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos, and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. 89 percent of the counties shifted to the right. That’s a mandate. I don’t understand how people can look at that and say there’s no mandate. There’s a mandate.”
Behar still wasn’t sure. She suggested Smith was presenting “a different definition of a mandate,” but he continued. “We can sit up there and play around all we want to,” Smith added. “In 2020, Trump didn’t win the popular vote, he didn’t win the Electoral College vote. As a matter of fact, the Republicans haven’t won the popular vote, if I remember correctly, since 2004. But they did this year.”
Smith said Trump’s victory is a result of voters rejecting the Democratic agenda, and he argued the party needs to find new messaging if they want to win over the American people moving forward.
Dem Discomfort
Behar is not alone in her discomfort with the magnitude of Trump’s win. Megyn noted New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman continues to say Trump “doesn’t have an historic mandate,” and there were audible boos when Trump talked about his “mandate” in his Joint Address to Congress. “They really don’t like to acknowledge that on the left,” Megyn said. “They really don’t want to say ‘historic.’ They don’t want to say ‘mandate.’ They don’t want to say any of the things that Trump says.”
In Halperin’s view, it just reiterates how little the left has learned in the wake of Trump’s victory. “The people on that set, and in Congress, and on MSNBC who want to litigate the size of the mandate and want to minimize his victory are spending time not trying to understand why he won,” he explained. “[He is] someone who they think is the worst person in the world, someone who won after the events of January 6, who won after denying he lost the election in 2020, who won after four years of a term that they consider to be a complete abomination.”
Getting to the heart of that “why” should be the sole focus of Democrats moving forward, but that does not seem to be the case. “They need to spend more time – for their own good and for the good of the country – answering the question,” Halperin concluded. “It’s not, ‘How big is this mandate?’ but ‘Why was he able to win?’ ‘How did he win?’ ‘And how is he governing now in a way that is almost unbothered by the Democrats’ efforts to slow him down?'”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Halperin by tuning in to episode 1,019 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.