Nancy Pelosi: House Democrats Received ‘Mandate’ Despite Losing Seats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) insisted during a Friday press conference that House Democrats received a “mandate” to pursue their progressive agenda based on the 2020 election results, despite several losing seats, because they collectively garnered “nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump.”

Pelosi referenced a simple chart while speaking to reporters on Friday, which listed the number of votes House Democrats collectively received compared to President Trump and House Republicans. The chart read:

House Democrats: 75,495,518

Donald Trump: 73,701,667

House Republicans: 72,109,474

Relying on those figures, Pelosi contended that House Democrats actually did, in fact, receive a “mandate,” despite losing seats to the GOP, narrowing their majority status in the House.

“Did you know that House Democrats got nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump?” Pelosi asked. “I say that because everybody said well– but everybody turned out and it was a great victory, a mandate.”

She continued:

[The] most important thing we did two years ago was win the House. We won 40 seats, 31 of them in Trump districts in the most gerrymandered, voter suppressed political arena you could name. 40 seats, 31 in Trump districts. I said then it would be harder next time because he’ll be on the ballot, and it was. And it was. And so we will lose some, a few of those seats. Couple in Hillary districts and a few in his districts. Imagine, nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump, and people say, well the Democrats didn’t turn out. No, we did.

Pelosi added that House Democrats received more than 3 million more votes collectively than the Republicans did and praised her “big tent” party for the turnout “across the board.”

“But I want you to be sure you knew, nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump,” she said, pointing to the chart before taking questions from reporters:

Nancy Pelosi just now insisted that the election was a success for House Democrats because they got more in the popular vote. pic.twitter.com/ee7JPWVD53

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) November 20, 2020

In August, Pelosi predicted “double-digit” gains for Democrats in the House in the November election.

In reality, Democrats lost several seats to Republican candidates. The GOP’s freshman class is led by women and minorities, as Breitbart News noted.

Even CNN observed that the “2020 election just keeps getting worse for House Democrats.”