Republican political strategist Karl Rove on Thursday claimed that President Barack Obama was re-elected because he was able to suppress voters.

During an appearance on Fox News, Rove claimed that Obama had not gotten more people to vote for him, compared to 2008. Instead, Obama successfully retained his 2008 supporters and convinced voters not to cast their ballots for his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

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“He succeeded by suppressing the vote, by saying to people, ‘You may not like who I am and I know you can’t bring yourself to vote for me, but I’m going to paint this other guy as simply a rich guy who only cares about himself,'” he said.

But Rove didn’t provide evidence that Obama had prevented anyone from voting, only that his campaign had convinced Americans not to vote for Romney.

“Fifty-three percent in the exit polls said on Election Day that Mitt Romney’s policies would only help the rich,” he continued. “And they voted for Obama by a 9 to 1 margin. Of the 21 percent of the electorate who said that the most important characteristic in a president was that he cares about people like me, they voted for President Obama by almost a 9 to 1 margin. They effectively denigrated Mitt Romney’s character, business acumen, business experience and made him unworthy.”

On election night, Rove had refused to accept the fact that Romney lost. The Republican strategist had predicted that Romney would win the popular vote and at least 279 Electoral College votes.

Watch video, via Media Matters, below: