Washington Times debunks Trump campaign tweet claiming it called election for Gore

The Trump campaign deleted a tweet Sunday claiming the Washington Times prematurely projected Al Gore as the winner of the 2000 presidential election after the conservative newspaper debunked it.

Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s director of communications, tweeted the doctored image Sunday afternoon.

“Those photos have been doctored. The Washington Times never ran a ‘President Gore’ headline,” the newspaper said in response. “We also wish to add that Mr. Murtaugh has been officially notified via email about this error.”

We also wish to add that Mr. Murtaugh has been officially notified via email about this error.

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 8, 2020

Since all major networks and The Associated Press projected Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election Saturday, the Trump campaign and its allies have assailed the projections as premature. Media outlets making a call does not halt the counting of ballots, and the bar for a projection varies by outlet.

The AP, for instance, waits until until the point at which, when considering whether the candidate who leads has any chance of being overtaken, “the answer is an unquestionable ‘no.’”

Fox News, meanwhile, uses what Decision Desk Director Arnon Mishkin called “a function of how wide the margin is between the two candidates, and not just in the presidency, but also in the various other statewide races.”

“In the event that there’s a wide margin, I think all of the networks are going to be able to make a call fairly quickly,” he added. “In the event that the margin is much closer, you won’t be able to make that call because you won’t be able to see if there’s a difference until later in the evening — and that’s true in any election.”