CNN's Jake Tapper Baffled by Comparison of Harris and Biden Results on Map: 'Holy Smokes'

Jake Tapper was stunned early Wednesday when an electoral map showed Kamala Harris had failed to improve on Joe Biden's performance four years ago.

“You asked, 'Are there places where the Vice President will outperform Joe Biden in 2020?'” John King, CNN's chief national correspondent, told Tapper as the pair looked at the data displayed on the network's infamous Magic Wall. King then changed the display to highlight states where Harris had beaten Biden's 2020 result by 3 percent or more – resulting in a completely dark map.

“Holy Christ,” Tapper replied. “Literally nothing?”

“Literally nothing,” King confirmed.

“Not a county in the truest sense of the word?” Tapper asked. King clarified that the map would show states, then switched to another display showing counties where Harris outperformed Biden by 3 percent or more. At this point in the evening, just before 2 a.m. Eastern Time, Harris had only done so in 58 counties.

“There may be more out here on the West Coast,” King added. “It's possible there will be one or two more after they finish counting here. “But in the states that matter … in one county in battleground Pennsylvania, she is outperforming President Biden by 3 percent or more.”

About 90 minutes later, King announced the race for Donald Trump and declared: “He’s going to do it.”

“I probably shouldn’t say that on TV,” King said, pointing out that his network had not yet predicted a Trump victory. “But he’ll do it,” he said.

CNN finally announced the Trump race at 5:30 a.m. ET.

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