So how's the president taking the loss? In typical Trump fashion: He's lying to his Twitter followers and, in all likelihood, to himself.
#ElectionNight Won 5 out of 6 elections in Kentucky, including 5 great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night. @MattBevin picked up at least 15 points in last days, but perhaps not enough (Fake News will blame Trump!). Winning in Mississippi Governor race!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019
Did Bevin pick up at least 15 points in the polls in the closing days of the race? Nope.
Every poll conducted this year showed a tie race or Bevin leading. One poll conducted last year showed the Democrat leading by 8.
But Trump was undeterred. He followed that lying boast with an even bigger lie.
Our big Kentucky Rally on Monday night had a massive impact on all of the races. The increase in Governors race was at least 15 points, and maybe 20! Will be in Louisiana for @EddieRispone on Wednesday night. Big Rally!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019
Donald, listen. I know you still don't understand how to browse the Internet, but trust me: People can check this stuff now.
But this is standard operating procedure for Trump when his candidate loses, and sometimes even when his candidate wins. Here's Trump in 2017, when he endorsed Mitch McConnell's candidate in the Republican Senate primary in Alabama:
Senator Luther Strange has gone up a lot in the polls since I endorsed him a month ago. Now a close runoff. He will be great in D.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2017
Actually, no, Strange hadn't gone up a lot in the polls against Roy Moore -- and Moore went on to win that primary.
In the 2018 Georgia governor's race, Trump claimed that he was personally responsible for a 45-point swing in the GOP primary:
Thank you Georgia! They say that my endorsement last week of Brian Kemp, in the Republican Primary for Governor against a very worthy opponent, lifted him from 5 points down to a 70% to 30% victory! Two very good and talented men in a great race, but congratulations to Brian!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
What's odd in this case is that Trump might have helped Kemp run up the score -- but no, that wasn't good enough. He felt compelled to claim that he personally turned a Kemp loss into a win.
And earlier this year, Trump claimed that his candidate in a North Carolina special House election was facing a crushing defeat before he intervened.
Dan Bishop was down 17 points 3 weeks ago. He then asked me for help, we changed his strategy together, and he ran a great race. Big Rally last night. Now it looks like he is going to win. @CNN & @MSNBC are moving their big studio equipment and talent out. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2019
Nope. According to FiveThirtyEight, three polls in this race had Democrat Dan McCready leading (by 2 point, 5 points, and 5 points), two had Trump's candidate leading (by 1 point and 4 points), and one showed a tie. So the race was a tossup. (Trump's guy won by 2.)
He just can't stop doing this. And his enablers reinforce the message:
Message from last night to R election professions: Every GOP candidate on ticket statewide in a @realDonaldTrump state and almost everyone in a blue state has to put arms around @POTUS and squeeze through 2020. MSM of course missing this.
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) November 6, 2019
Laura Ingraham's take on the Kentucky elections must be seen to be believed: "That is the power of Donald Trump... This is all very good news for Republicans." pic.twitter.com/EYbB9hp4FE
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 6, 2019
Trump can't fail -- in fact, he can't even be failed. Even his losses are wins.
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