Fact check: Joe Biden's inauguration didn't have the lowest-ever TV ratings

Brian Gordon, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Joe Biden's inauguration had the lowest ratings in history.

Soon after President Joe Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, multiple social media posts made nearly identical claims that questioned the number of votes Biden received in the 2020 election by stating his inauguration had the lowest viewership in history.

Several Facebook posts include a screenshot of a tweet, or its exact words: “Joe Biden has the lowest TV rating and online views in US history for a Presidential Inauguration Day. But somehow received 84 million votes. I can’t wait for them to explain this one."

The tweet had been retweeted 2,500 times before it was deleted. The Twitter user told USA TODAY she did not have evidence to support the claim, which she had first seen on Facebook.

USA TODAY also reached out to the Facebook users for comment.

These claims about Biden's inauguration hint at a false belief held among some supporters of former President Donald Trump that the results of the 2020 election were not accurate.

More: Fact check: No basis for claims that President Joe Biden's inauguration was faked

Biden hits high ratings

In fact, the Biden inauguration drew one of the largest TV audiences in history, not the lowest.

According to Nielsen, 33.8 million people watched Biden’s inauguration between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Jan. 20, the third-highest viewership of any presidential inauguration in the past 40 years.

Only the first inaugurations of Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan exceeded Biden’s TV audience. Nielsen calculated 30.6 million people watched Donald Trump assume office in 2017.

Biden also had a record popular vote

And instead of 84 million, Biden received around 81 million votes in the November election, still enough to best Trump, who received around 74 million votes.

In the Electoral College — which decides the election winner — Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

More: Fact check: Biden won record popular vote, but inauguration crowd had limits

After losing the election, Trump falsely insisted extensive election fraud had occurred. No evidence supports this claim. USA TODAY has debunked several election myths.

Our rating: False

Biden had the third-most watched Inauguration Day in American history — not the lowest, as some claim. He received around 81 million votes in the 2020 election, not 84 million. We rate this claim as FALSE.

Our fact-check sources:

Brian Gordon is a statewide reporter with the USA Today Network in North Carolina. Reach him at bgordon@gannett.com or on Twitter @briansamuel92.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Joe Biden's inauguration viewership ranks 3rd since 1981