On Saturday, former President Donald Trump criticized the media for misrepresenting him in public opinion polls ahead of the 2020 presidential election. “These are crooked, disgusting, and very dishonest media outlets and they know exactly what they are doing,” Trump said, in a statement released by the PAC Save America, referencing an article from the Wall Street Journal issued Thursday.
“The 2020 polls overstated Democratic support ‘in every type of contest we looked at.” said Joshua D. Clinton, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, s who led the review for the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
Trump referenced the title of the article “Worst Presidential Poll Miss in 40 Years,” saying they “finally got something right.”
Clinton added, “This was true no matter how respondents were polled. It didn’t matter whether you’re doing online or telephone polls. A similar level of error was pervasive.”
The panel responsible for conducting the research disclosed its findings at a trade association meeting on Wednesday, but they have not released their final report yet. One question the group has not answered is why the polls were skewed in the first place and what the remedy would be to fix them.
“It’s called SUPPRESSION POLLING and it should be illegal,” Trump said.
The election polling in 2020 was the most skewed it’s ever been, excluding 1980, since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s landslide victory in 1952.
The panel suggested one reason for this could be that Democrats were more willing to partake in polls than Republicans. Another possibility is that Trump brought in a new set of voters unaffiliated with either party.
On Wednesday, president of the polling trade group AAPOR, Dan Merkle, had felt saddened that the surveys had blemished his industry’s reputation.
“An unfortunate consequence of the increased pre-election polling error of 2016 and 2020 is the doubt it has cast on all types of survey research,” Merkle said.
“The 2020 Presidential Election was, by far, the greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country,” Trump said. “The good news is, the American people get it, and the truth is rapidly coming out! Had Mike Pence had the courage to send the Electoral College vote back to states for recertification, and had Mitch McConnell fought for us instead of being the weak and pathetic leader he is, we would right now have a Republican President who would be VETOING the horrific Socialistic Bills that are rapidly going through Congress, including Open Borders, High Taxes, Massive Regulations, and so much else!”
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