A man widely renowned as the ‘Nostradamus of US presidential elections’ appeared to be at a loss for words Wednesday as Donald Trump edged toward a win.
‘Time is running out,’ Professor Allan Lichtman was heard saying on the since-wrapped election livestream, posted to his YouTube account.
‘Trump has maintained his lead in Pennsylvania,’ he said around 1am, before it and six others – all of the ‘swing’ variety – fell to the former president.
The result was a landslide most hadn’t expected – Lichtman himself included. He previously predicted a Kamala Harris win – something that failed to come to fruition as the stream played out.
Within an hour, the American University professor was calling it quits – putting a cap on a six-hour broadcast that saw his prediction for this year’s race fall flat.
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‘I’m not doing any interviews, I’m done with that,’ Lichtman was heard saying as he finished the livestream.
‘I will make a statement [about it] and I’ll decide when my next show is going to be,’ he continued.
‘I don’t get it.’
‘Good thing I have nothing to do tomorrow,’ the 77-year-old who predicted a Trump win in 2016 continued, appearing alongside his son Sam.
‘You know what happens if Trump wins? He won’t serve a full term, he’ll turn it over to JD Vance,’ he said, citing Trump’s advanced age.
As Sam appeared similarly stumped by the results playing out in real-time, Lichtman thanked his fans for tuning in – as many mocked him for being so wrong.
He told them towards the end: ‘I’m heartened from all the kind emails I’ve been getting, a lot of people say we should keep doing this show.
‘I’m going to sleep all day tomorrow,’ he added immediately after.
At several points, the seasoned professor appeared to grimace and cradle his face -as the father and son tracked the results on-screen.
Just last month, he had came forward to claim Harris had met what he believed to his critical objectives for victory – telling CTV News how his made-up metrics are ‘based on a fundamental understanding of how American presidential elections really work.
‘Polls tell you nothing,’ he asserted further.
The forecasts raised eyebrows – as it had come from a man who has accurately predicted nearly every single US presidential election since 1984.
Still, Lichtman has been wrong in the past – albeit just once, in 2000, when he erroneously predicted a win for Al Gore.
In that case, part of the prediction did come true, in the sense that Gore snagged the popular vote.
However, this time around, that was far from the case, with the Trump win over Kamala Harris even more resounding than the pronounced upset over Hillary Clinton.
Trump, in turn, became the first Republican in two decades to secure the most ballots on Wednesday – while snagging states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
This helped him to a clear-cut win electorally, surprising many who had seen the prospective fights for those so-called ‘battleground’ states as being much more intense.
But Trump took them with relative ease – leaving both Lichtman and his son in relative awe.
‘What? That’s not possible,’ he exclaimed. as projections showed Trump winning the Hispanic vote in all-important Pennsylvania.
‘The world has turned upside down, that’s all I can say,’ Lichtman added at another point – as more states turned red.
Massaging his temples well into the stream while saying there had been ‘nothing positive for Harris yet’, he went on to engage in a full-on facepalm when it became clear all seven of the states billed as being keys to victory had gone to Trump.
At that point, the visibly defeated academic thanked onlookers for tuning in, including those mockingly donating to the languishing livestream.
He went on to conceded his so-called ‘Keys [to victory] were wrong’ – pointing to his 13 keys method to victory that he said Harris had met eight of.
‘A lot of people believe the future of the country is on the line here, and the democracy of America could be a thing of the past,’ Lichtman concluded by saying, adding, ‘I don’t think that’s an illegitimate fear.’
‘I’m so worried about the future of our election, you know… democracy is precious but like all precious things, it can be destroyed,’ he added.
Lichtman’s 13 keys include things like incumbency, incumbent charisma, challenger charisma, foreign policy failure, and foreign policy success.
In an interview with the New York times, he said Trump had five of those metrics working against him – enough for the professor to incorrectly discern he would lose.