President Donald Trump is claiming that millions more people watched the Republican National Convention than the Democratic National Convention despite the ratings showing that the opposite is true.
In his Wednesday morning tweet, the president wrote, “We had FAR more people (many millions) watching us at the RNC than did Sleepy Joe and the DNC, and yet an ad just ran saying the opposite. This is what we’re up against. Lies. But we will WIN!”
We had FAR more people (many millions) watching us at the RNC than did Sleepy Joe and the DNC, and yet an ad just ran saying the opposite. This is what we’re up against. Lies. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020
The Nielsen ratings showed that the Democrats’ convention consistently beat the Republicans.
The Republican convention received its highest ratings when 23.8 million people watched Trump accept his party’s nomination for president. However, that is still lower than the 24.6 million people who watched Joe Biden accept the Democratic nomination.
On the opening night of the conventions, 19.7 million tuned in to the Democrats’ convention while 17 million watched the first night of the Republican convention.
The Republican National Convention’s numbers did beat the Democratic National Convention’s on the second night of the convention, when Melania Trump spoke at the GOP convention.
Trump’s reference to “an ad” that ran saying that the Democrats beat the Republicans in the ratings appears to be a nod to a clip from the Lincoln Project — the group of former Republican operatives who have made it their mission to troll Trump out of office.
The ad begins, “Uh oh Donald, bad news, the ratings are in for your convention, it’s not pretty.” The clip then cuts to a voiceover of a reporter announcing that Biden had better ratings than the president while showing images of a smiling Joe Biden.
The dialogue continues, “Democrats beat you in ratings every night, except one: when your wife was giving a speech. Ouch, that’s got to be awkward at the dinner table.”
A Lincoln Project spokesperson told IJR that the ad is currently running in Washington, D.C.
Biden beats Trump in polls and ratings. Ouch. pic.twitter.com/QijtGL4aW7
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 1, 2020
While Trump did not name the Lincoln Project in his Wednesday morning tweet, he’s attacked them before. In early May, he tweeted, “They don’t know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe.”