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.

“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.