This post is inspired by Scott Adams’ May 11 Sunday live X feed “Coffee with Scott Adams.” Adams is often the voice of reason. Seems appropriate for a platform called Freedom and Reason. On this day, one of the things he talked about was the 2020 election. He’s suspicious. He repeated his skepticism on today’s “Coffee with Scott Adams.”
As I was listening to Adams it reminded me that I still can’t figure out why, four years later, Joe Biden got 6,264,244 more votes than Kamala Harris. That’s a nearly 8 percentage point different. Those are significant numbers. Where did those votes go? We’re told that Biden’s astonishing vote total was driven by animus towards Trump. Why would the American electorate have less animus towards Trump in 2024 than in 2020? That’s what Scott wondered. I wondered this and more: did a significant number of those voting for Biden in 2020 switch their votes to Trump?
The total vote count for those voting for the Democratic and Republican candidates for president in 2020 and 2024 respectively were 159,633,396 and 154,925,368. So 4,708,028 fewer voters voted for either Harris or Trump, roughly a 3 percent difference. However, Trump received 3,080,204 more votes in 2024 compared to 2020, approximately a 4 percentage points improvement. Did voters realize their mistake in voting for Biden and, comparing his presidency to the previous four years under Trump, voted for Trump in 2024?
Also, I still can’t figure out how Trump won 6 of the 7 battleground states in 2016, lost all 7 in 2020, then won all 7 in 2024. Adams wondered aloud: isn’t it strange that, in the 2020 election, counties historically considered bellwethers (meaning they vote for the winning candidate) supported Donald Trump, yet Joe Biden won the election? I’ve noted before the republic’s redness. Trump won 2,564 of 3,144 counties in 2020. He won 2,633 counties in 2024. In 2016, Trump won 2,626 counties, roughly the same number he won in 2024. What explains Biden’s success in more counties compared to Clinton and Harris? The difference is considerable.
Biden received 81,283,501 votes in 2020. That is an astonishing number. I don’t believe it. I continue to hear it said that 2020 was “the most secure election in history.” But repeating something incessantly doesn’t make it true. It is furthermore suspicious that this claim would be repeated so frequently. Men who are genuinely innocent don’t typically feel the need to loudly proclaim their innocence.
Suppose the 2020 election was stolen. How would we know? Presumably the authorities would audit the election and see if there is something amiss. You would think given the widespread belief that something was amiss, an audit would help reassure everybody. But instead of an audit, the public was told that it was the most secure election in history. That’s a lot like the medical industry’s resistance to a review of vaccine safety and efficacy dismissed by claiming vaccines are safe and effective. Shouldn’t we find out? We don’t have to because vaccines are safe and effective. Remember the notorious circular argument that God is real because the Bible tells us so, and you can trust the Bible because it’s the inspired word of God? Yeah, that.
Suppose there was an audit and no significant evidence that the election was stolen was found. Could it be that the operation was so sophisticated that it could be audit-proof? That was Adams’ point. At best, at their most honest, all the establishment can do is say that they don’t know whether 2020 was “the most secure election in history.” But me and millions of other people, including Scott Adams don’t believe that. And, speaking for myself, I never will.
freedom and reason 