Joe Rogan Experience #2544 - Chris Williamson · Aired Aug 21, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
Richard Nixon won the 1972 presidential election by the largest margin in U.S. history.
The finding
What the evidence shows
Nixon did win in a landslide. He took 49 states and beat George McGovern by about 18 million votes, which is still the largest raw vote margin any presidential candidate has ever run up. But "largest margin in U.S. history" does not hold on the measures people usually mean. His 23.2 point win trails Warren Harding's 26.2 point win in 1920, and his 520 electoral votes trail Franklin Roosevelt's 523 in 1936.
Read the supporting source · en.wikipedia.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that Richard Nixon won the 1972 presidential election by the largest margin in U.S. history?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. Nixon did win in a landslide. He took 49 states and beat George McGovern by about 18 million votes, which is still the largest raw vote margin any presidential candidate has ever run up. Joe Rogan said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2544 - Chris Williamson, aired Aug 21, 2026, at 5:32. The supporting source is en.wikipedia.org, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
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