MSNBC’s Brian Williams Mistakenly Claims Bloomberg Could Have Given Each American $1,000,000 With Campaign Money Spent

In what can only be described as an epic gaffe, Brian Williams had a guest on his show last night on MSNBC from the New York Times editorial board, Mara Gay, and they referenced a tweet that claimed, Mike Bloomberg “could have given each American $1 million dollars and still had money left over” with the amount he spent on his campaign. The math on that is actually about a $1.50 per person. See the video for yourself in the tweet below:

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams has temporarily stolen the spotlight from Joe Biden for the greatest gaffe.
I’m Ron Burgundy?? pic.twitter.com/mdUqwXlfpC

— Public Affairs Amateur (@AffairsAmateur) March 6, 2020

Gay: Actually with the money that he could have spent, he could have given each American a million dollars.

Williams: I’ve got it, let’s put it up on the screen. When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear. Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads, US population 327 million, don’t tell us if you’re ahead of us on the math, he could have given each American $1 million dollars and have had lunch money left over. It’s an incredible way of putting it.

Gay: It’s an incredible way of putting it, it’s true.

Williams corrected the error after the commercial break and has issued an apology through his show’s Twitter, which is called 11th Hour.

Tonight on the air we quoted a tweet that relied on bad math. We corrected the error after the next commercial break and have removed it from later editions of tonight’s program. We apologize for the error.

— 11th Hour (@11thHour) March 6, 2020

Gay for her part, has taken it all in stride, issuing a tweet stating that, presumably despite having one on her phone, computer, etc., she will be “buying a calculator.”

Buying a calculator, brb ?

— Mara Gay (@MaraGay) March 6, 2020