President Donald Trump called in his own pollster Monday to refute the latest polls from CNN and other outlets that show him trailing badly to presumed Democratic candidate Joe Biden in a head-to-head match-up.
“I have retained highly respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates, to analyze todays CNN Poll (and others), which I felt were FAKE based on the incredible enthusiasm we are receiving,” the president wrote in a series of tweets. “Read analysis for yourself. This is the same thing they and others did when we defeated Crooked Hillary Clinton in 2016. They are called SUPPRESSION POLLS, and are put out to dampen enthusiasm. Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd!”
He attached a photo of a letter on McLaughlin & Associates letterhead which said, “The latest skewed media polls must be intentional. It’s clear that NBC, ABC and CNN who have Democrat operatives like Chuck Todd, George Stephanopoulos and other Democrats in their news operations are consistently under-polling Republicans and therefore, reporting biased polls.”
Representatives for NBC News, ABC News and CNN didn’t immediately return a request for comment on McLaughlin’s claims.
CNN’s latest poll, conducted by SSRS and released Monday morning, showed Trump’s approval continuing to decline, down seven points in the last month. Biden led him by 14 points, with 55% backing the Democrat while 41% supported Trump’s bid for re-election.
In a report on the poll, CNN contextualized the findings: “Overall 38% approve of the way Trump is handling the presidency, while 57% disapprove. That’s his worst approval rating since January 2019, and roughly on par with approval ratings for Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush at this point in their reelection years. Both went on to lose the presidency after one term.”
Notably absent from the McLaughlin & Associates letter was Fox News, which Trump attacked on Twitter on May 22 after a poll from that network showed him trailing behind Biden and his approval down, too.
After tweeting that Fox News “should fire their Fake Pollster,” he wrote at the time, “Why doesn’t @FoxNews put up the CNBC POLL or the (believe it or not!) @CNN Poll? Hope Roger A is looking down and watching what has happened to this once beautiful creation!”
Trump has worked with McLaughlin & Associates in the past. He hired John McLaughlin for polling in 2016, too. At the time, the Daily Beast reported that McLaughlin was “the guy responsible for one of the biggest polling disasters in recent history.” When McLaughlin served as pollster for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014, he released a poll saying Cantor would beat college professor Dave Brat by 34 points. Two weeks later, Cantor lost to Brat by 12 points.