American University professor Allan Lichtman, known for his “13 Keys” election model, accused far-left The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur of “blasphemy” after Uygur mocked his failed prediction for the 2024 election. Lichtman’s “13 Keys” model, which evaluates presidential election outcomes based on factors like economic performance, national security, and public opinion, has gained prominence in recent cycles due to its prior accuracy. The model assigns a “key” to the dominant party in each category, with the outcome determined by which party controls the majority of keys.
Criticism of Lichtman’s methodology has centered on its subjectivity. For example, Lichtman awarded Vice President Kamala Harris favorable marks for short- and long-term economic success despite months of polling showing widespread dissatisfaction with the economy among likely voters. Additionally, he concluded that now-President-elect Donald Trump lacked charisma and argued that the Biden-Harris administration had avoided major scandals—both assessments that critics, including Uygur, vigorously challenged.
Lichtman ultimately forecasted a decisive victory for Kamala Harris, awarding her eight of the 13 keys in his model. For the first time, he also created his own electoral map, predicting that Democrats would win traditionally Republican-leaning states like North Carolina and Georgia. But in the end, he was spectacularly incorrect, though he claimed his keys were correct and that the election hinged on “misinformation.”
“We’ve always had disinformation, but disinformation has exploded to an unprecedented degree. You talked about a grievance election, but a lot of that grievance was driven by disinformation. Starts with Fox News and conservative media, conservative podcasters with tens of millions of views,” Lichtman ranted during a recent appearance on NewsNation.
“But we’ve seen something brand new this time. The 300 billionaire Elon Musk putting his thumb on the scales through his control of X, formerly Twitter. It’s been reported that his misinformation has had billions, literally billions of views and this is spread to every aspectof this election. There is misinformation about everything about the economy, inflation, jobs, unemployment, the stock market, growth. There is vast disinformation about undocumented immigrants, you know, that they are supposedly, killers.”
During British journalist Piers Morgan’s panel discussion show on Tuesday, Lichtman melted down after Uygur called him out for his ridiculous predictions. “Don’t blame the voters. I think, look, we can get into this discussion but Juan [Williams], I think you’re blaming the voters. I think that’s a terrible idea,” Uygur said. “And look, I debated professor Lichtman before, I told him his theories about the keys were absurd. I was right, he was wrong. I said he would lose his keys.”
Lichtman then erupted in defense of his keys, stating that they were “not wrong” before accusing Uygur of taking a “cheap shot” at him. “I read your own followers’ comments and they all trashed you, every one of them and supported me,” the professor said, adding that Uygur was “making it personal.” Uygur then fired back with, “you don’t know anything” and stated that he was “deluded,” which angered Lichtman even more and prompted him to start listing his credentials. “I’ve published 13 books. How many books have you published?” he shouted. The two then continued to bicker back and forth before Uygur stated that Lichtman deserves “a tall glass of shut-up juice.”
WATCH:
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.