Another day, a new lie from the president.
Donald Trump made a false claim this morning about the ratings for his State of the Union address, claiming that the “highest number in history” watched the speech.
Tweeted Trump: “Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!”
Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2018
NBC News reveals that's a lie:
The Nielsen company said former President Barack Obama drew 48 million people for his first State of the Union in 2010. And presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both gave two addresses that reached more viewers, Bush's 2003 speech before the Iraq war getting the most ever: 62 million.
Trump's audience was down from the 47.7 million people who watched his address to the joint session of Congress last February.
Fox News Channel earned the top spot among the individual networks, with 11.5 million viewers during the speech. It was the first time that Fox News, home of Trump-friendly opinion hosts like Sean Hannity, beat all of the networks for the State of the Union, although Fox also was the network of choice for Trump's address to Congress last February.
NBC (7.1 million) and CBS (7 million) fought for second place. The Fox broadcast network had 3.6 million, CNN had 3.1 million and MSNBC had 2.7 million, Nielsen said.
