WATCH: Trump Dodges When Confronted About Ken Paxton Dissing His Midterm Convention — Pushes Wildly Misleading Claim About Its Viewership

President Donald Trump repeated his claim that his GOP convention in Texas was the “most watched thing on television” and even beat out the NFL in response to questions about Ken Paxton’s putdown of the event — while dod

Trump told reporters he hadn’t heard Paxton’s comments. He then added, “But I can tell you that the convention was amazing, as you probably know. We had 107 million views. But we had over 100 million views, I think 107. The NFL had 25 million views.”

He continued:

So we had four times what the NFL did. And, you know, it’s possible that could be true. I don’t know if it’s possible. But other people were helped greatly. This was a national convention, midterm convention, never been done before. And we went directly against the NFL. It was just the timing worked out that way. And we had 107 million versus 25 million views, which was a big story in the entertainment world and sports world. So I think the convention, I would imagine they do it again often. Somebody said it won’t do as well because I won’t be around, but I’ll be around in some form.

“I don’t know what form I’m going to be around in. But the convention, just based on the views that it got, it was the most watched thing on television. and that included the NFL, which is pretty amazing,” the president concluded.

Audio leaked Wednesday revealed Paxton said of Trump and the convention, “Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag? So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”

Trump originally made the NFL-convention viewership claim on Sept. 10.

He wrote on Truth Social:

The Republican Midterm Convention last night, in Dallas, was a major, sold out hit, far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible. It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL. The overall numbers beat the NFL. The Arena, which was really nice, beat its own attendance records. The place was packed! There were thousands of people outside who couldn’t get in. Screens were provided. I guess people LOVE TRUMP POLITICS! I’ll be there again tonight to close out the show. Exciting ‘Stuff!’ MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

CNN’s Brian Stelter fact-checked the president on Sept. 15, and several others followed suit. Stelter found that the two NFL games that aired at the same time as the convention had a collective 43 million views on television, while the convention amassed 7 million on television — numbers that are pertinent to Trump’s claim about television ratings.

The White House referred PolitiFact to social media impressions when asked about Trump’s claim, and also to a post on X by Trump advisor Alex Brusewitz, who wrote, “Brian Stelter failed to mention our strong focus on digital content and viewership, including that livestreams on @TeamTrump’s TikTok generated more than 70 million combined impressions across nights one and two.”

Breitbart also claimed the convention racked up 34 million TikTok impressions. PolitiFact also noted, “Impressions are ‘not comparable to Nielsen ratings in any meaningful sense,’ said Nick Reiners, a senior analyst in geotechnology with the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm.”

Watch the above via Fox News.

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