Breitbart News crushed competitors on Facebook the week of the first presidential debate of 2024, according to data from Meta-owned CrowdTangle.
In the week leading up to the debate — Sunday, June 23, through Saturday, June 29 — Breitbart News beat establishment media outlets the New York Times, Washington Post, Axios, Politico, and the HuffPost, combined, on Facebook.
A brief look at a chart covering those dates shows a total of 1.88 million interactions. Breitbart News comprises 1.04 million of those interactions, followed by 428k for the New York Times, 203.7k for the HuffPost, 150.2k for the Washington Post, 33.1k for Politico, and 31.4k for Axios.
That being said, Breitbart News also saw significantly more shares and comments than the others — 225.9k comments and 88.7k shares. The Times came in second place in terms of comments and shares — 121.6k and 35.3k, respectively.
CrowdTangle
Further, in that same seven-day period, Breitbart News beat conservative outlets Daily Wire, Daily Caller, RedState, Western Journal, Townhall, National Review, and TheBlaze, combined, on Facebook.
From Sunday, June 23, to Saturday, June 29, those outlets saw 2.03 million total interactions, and Breitbart News comprised more than half of those reactions — 1.04 million. Daily Wire came in second with 317.8k total Facebook interactions, followed by the Daily Caller (297.3k), TheBlaze (190.2k), the Western Journal (106.8k), Townhall (46.9k), RedState (28k), and National Review (2.2k).
CrowdTangle
“At Breitbart News, we hold ourselves accountable to one group of people above all others: The People,” Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow said of the news.
“When we see numbers like these — that we are beating all of our establishment media competitors, combined — it shows that we are providing more content that The People actually want to read than any other outlet. I expect nothing less from our team, but it is still tremendously encouraging,” he continued.
“We at Breitbart News, as ever, have our finger on the pulse of the news,” Marlow added. “The numbers prove that. Clearly.”
The data reflects what many consider to be the most important week of the election cycle thus far, as it saw both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden face off in their first head-on debate of 2024. The debate did not bode well for Biden despite his week of “debate camp” at Camp David. During the debate, Biden, 81, oftentimes seemed confused, even experiencing an awkward freeze mere minutes into the debate. Biden also attempted to resurrect several thoroughly debunked Democrat talking points — from the “very fine people” hoax to the “suckers and losers” fabrication. When he was not doing that, he repeated the phrase “the idea” 27 times, as Breitbart News documented that very night.
Many Democrats initially panicked, admitting it was not a great night for the president.
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However, it did not take long for high-level Democrats — namely, former President Barack Obama — to come to Biden’s rescue amid the chatter, urging Americans to look past Biden’s lackluster debate performance.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” Obama said in a statement shared on social media on June 28. “But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
“Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit,” Obama said, concluding that the debate “didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
According to reports, Biden’s family is urging him to ignore the noise and continue to charge on in the race. Biden has since made it clear he has no intention of leaving, and many well-known Democrat governors — from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — have since issued messages of public support for Biden following an emergency meeting at the White House.
Meanwhile, many polls show Trump pulling ahead of Biden post-debate, including in key swing states, such as Pennsylvania.