MSNBC’s Joy Reid tweeted last night that the reason Nate Silver named his website FiveThirtyEight is because of the margin of victory in Florida during the 2000 election and not because there are a total of 538 votes in the electoral college:
Here's the thing: the reason there's a thing called @FiveThirtyEight is because 538 was the margin in FL when the Republican SCOTUS reversed the 2000 election during a recount, making Dubya the president. That's the kind of margin where races can flip. That's not what's up now.
— Joy WE VOTED!! WEAR A MASK!! Reid ?) (@JoyAnnReid) November 10, 2020
At this point, we really do question why MSNBC has her on-air as an expert on the U.S. political system:
Yeah that’s not it… https://t.co/ucmpTkXZ6U
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 10, 2020
And she’s wrong about the official final count in Florida, too. It’s 537 votes:
This is not the reason FiveThirtyEight is called FiveThirtyEight. It's called that because that's the total number of electoral votes in the US.
(And the margin in FL in 2000 was not 538. It was 537.) https://t.co/s4ciUIVwpY
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) November 10, 2020
Don’t give her any ideas:
and the 270 in 270towin is a reference to the 270 million eligible voters in the 2020 election!
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) November 10, 2020
Maybe she’ll blame hackers?
MY GOD. SHE STILL HAS NOT DELETED THIS. https://t.co/aIoDmRBzmX
— Jeff B., who on earth is this guy?? (@EsotericCD) November 10, 2020
But trust the media, they say:
the scandal isn't her irredeemable stupidity, but that people who know better continue to look the other way as she beclowns herself and her network on the daily. pic.twitter.com/7BrB2VXXC8
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) November 10, 2020
What’s also amazing about the tweet is that she’s calling out President Trump for using the exact same legal remedies available to Al Gore in 2000! Just let the process play out, Joy. It will be fine.
This is factually wrong on multiple accounts.
– 538 are number of electoral votes (Fla. was decided by 537 votes)
– SCOTUS never flipped Florida 2000 election result. They ordered election office to stop counting. Bush was leading the whole time.— Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) November 10, 2020
And maybe while we wait for a correction for this one, MSNBC will FINALLY look into her “hacked” blog posts?
As the nation waits for President Trump to concede, some of us are still waiting for an apology to your homophobic blog posts.
— Quentin Fottrell (@Quantanamo) November 10, 2020
Screenshot for posterity:
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