The hosts of ABC News’ “The View” ganged up on guest Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday, pushing back on his claims that President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory amounted to a mandate to govern in the way he had promised on the campaign trail.
The show’s hosts — including fellow guest and former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — complained that Trump’s slim margin of victory with regard to the popular vote meant that he did not really have the mandate Smith said he did.
WATCH:
Karine Jean-Pierre whines about Smith acknowledging Trump’s mandate.
“He does not have a mandate.” pic.twitter.com/rvinvWDYmR— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 4, 2025
“He’s been going around with his cronies touting his so-called landslide and blowout win, but he won the popular vote by 1.5%. One of the smallest ever and he won the general election by less than 50%. So what kind of mandate is this?” Joy Behar began.
Smith, a sports commentator, pushed back, saying that he believed it was a mandate — and he laid out in detail the reasons he felt that way.
“It is a mandate and I’m going to explain why — and I don’t mind the question, but let me be very clear: I’m not supporter of Trump, I’m a supporter of truth,” Smith said. “And here’s the facts. The man won every swing state. He increased in terms of his voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos, and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. 89% of the counties shifted to the right! That’s a mandate!”
“We can sit up there and play around all we want to, in 2020 Trump didn’t win the popular vote,” Smith continued. “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. So 20 years after they last won the popular vote, they won the popular vote, they won the Electoral College vote, the man won every swing state … I don’t understand how people can look at that and say there’s no mandate. There’s a mandate.”
“Well, it’s a different definition of a mandate, I guess,” Behar protested.
Smith kept going though, arguing that the massive shift to the right was a clear directive for the Democratic Party to “find a new strategy” going forward.
As Smith left the set, Jean-Pierre was coming in — and she immediately informed him that she disagreed with his assessment.
“He won with the smallest margin of the popular vote since the 19th century,” Jean-Pierre said, brushing aside every argument Smith had made to assert that Trump did not, in fact, have any kind of mandate.
