On Friday, President Donald Trump claimed that projected President-elect Joe Biden’s Thanksgiving address received only 1,000 views, evidence, Trump suggested, that Biden’s support was too low to have actually won the election:
The tweet was based on a segment from One America News, in which the anchor stated: “Joe Biden stirs a new controversy after his Thanksgiving address fails to attract viewers. Reports Thursday found that Biden's livestream address got only 1,000 views online.” The “report” in question was a viral tweet, which showed a screenshot from a Twitter livestream of the event:
In addition to streaming the address on Twitter, Biden’s speech aired on a number of other platforms. CSPAN aired the address on TV along with all the major networks, and a number of other outlets featured the stream on their YouTube channels. The Hill, USA Today, and NBC were just a few of the news outlets that streamed Biden’s speech on YouTube. As of writing, each had far more than 1,000 views, with NBC’s stream receiving over 450,000 views by Friday. The Biden campaign stream on YouTube had nearly 100,000 views by Friday.
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I prefer a president who's top metric isn't "views". That's a terrible measure because it's not clear evidence of support or effectiveness. Beyond that, I'd personally rather not spend much time actually paying attention to the president. Obama got it right: this president is exhausting. I have a business to run, a family to love, communities to support, and hobbies to enjoy. Watching a president's thanksgiving address is about #1,000 on my list.
I don't recall ever seeing any politician's Thanksgiving address. As it should be. #makepoliticsboringagain
Part of the greatness of conservativism used to be saying that politicians should not be the center of our attention. That's one of the ways the GOP lost its way, especially under Trump.