Trump blames media after DNC tops RNC in TV ratings
In a series of tweets Saturday morning, President Donald Trump targeted news outlets for correctly reporting that the Republican National Convention and his speech accepting the nomination were beat in TV ratings by the Democratic National Convention and Joe Biden's speech a week earlier.
Trump’s speech at the RNC Thursday night drew 23.4 million viewers compared with Biden’s speech, which drew 24.6 million, according to Nielson ratings. Overall, the average viewership for all four nights of the conventions were also higher for Democrats than Republicans. The RNC had an average 19.4 million viewers while the DNC averaged 21.6 million, according to the data.
In response to the ratings, Trump publicized his campaign's self-reported numbers, which includes digital and television viewers.
"Wow! Despite the Democrats views across TV and online lie (Con!), we had 147.9 million, the Republican National Convention blew the Democrat National Convention AWAY. Not even close!" Trump wrote in a tweet on Saturday. "Just like their lies on Russia, Football (PLAY!) and everything else! NOVEMBER 3rd."
He continued, retweeting the campaign's own numbers: "The Fake News doesn’t want to report these numbers. The @latimes and others believed the Crooked Dems before the real numbers came out. Too bad we don’t have honest reporting when it comes to “Trump”. Phony sources, they say anything and think they get away with it. November 3rd."
Trump has often used television ratings as a measure of success. In April, he tweeted: "I’ve had great “ratings” my whole life, there’s nothing unusual about that for me. The White House News Conference ratings are “through the roof”(Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale , @nytimes) but I don’t care about that. I care about going around the Fake News to the PEOPLE!"
ABC News' Will Steakin contributed to this report.
