CNBC

It was nearly 2 a.m. on the East Coast in the middle of election night when CNN’s Jake Tapper stood across from professional virtual-map operator John King and asked a simple question: “Are there any places where Kamala Harris overperformed from where Biden did?” Tapping away from a view of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, King zoomed out to a view of the entire United States and hit a key to show a comparison to the 2020 election. The map instantly turned a solid dark gray, without a single county highlighted. “Holy smokes,” Tapper gasped. “Literally nothing? Literally not one county?” “Literally nothing,” was King’s somber reply. The video, shared widely and instantly on X, has been viewed more than 13 million times.

Donald Trump said during the second and final presidential debate on October 22 that he was optimistic a vaccine would be ready 'within weeks’. When moderator Kristen Welker asked if that was a 'guarantee’, Trump replied that it was not, but that the US would have a vaccine by the 'end of the year’. It wasn't the first time he had made this prediction publicly: 'I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year,’ Trump said back in May. The media could have accepted that the President probably has better insight into the timeline of vaccine development and approval than those not involved in the process.