“Meet The Press” moderator Chuck Todd became incredulous Thursday as a spokesman for Donald Trump’s campaign continued to cite non-scientific polls as evidence that Trump won Monday’s debate.
Spokesman Jason Miller and Todd went back and forth over the issue despite many scientific polls, which, as Todd noted, almost universally handed Clinton a debate win. At one point, Todd told Miller that the online polls he and the campaign cite are “bogus” and “aren’t real.”
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“Why do you think multiple polls — scientific polls — have given, said Hillary Clinton won that debate by a 2-1 margin,” Todd asked. “I mean, it’s not even been close.”
“Alright, well, I’ve got to set you straight on that one,” Miller started. “The polls that happened that night, then night of the debate, the snap polls, the ones that happened online, those all showed Mr. Trump winning in a huge way.”
“What scientific poll had Donald Trump winning? Give me one scientific poll,” Todd said. “Those are fan polls, man. Those are polls that computer programmers can mess with. Those aren’t real. ”
“Those are a snapshot of what people are thinking who are actually watching the debate,” Miller replied.
The two went on to discuss the NBC/SurveyMonkey poll that came out Wednesday. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that Clinton won the debate compared to only 21 percent for Trump. Miller tried dismissing it, saying it polled people Tuesday as the “media” handed Clinton the victory.
“People who were watching thought that Mr. Trump won that debate,” Miller said, noting polls done by Time and Variety, which Todd tossed aside.
“Those are all like robot polling. That’s not real polling. They’re not,” Todd said. “Jason, you’ve been doing this for a while. Those are bogus! You know these are bogus. They’re beyond non-scientific … They’re not real, Jason.”
“The energy and enthusiasm in this race is all with Mr. Trump,” Miller said, using crowd counts as a barometer.
Since Monday’s debate ended, Trump touted polls, including one by the Drudge Report, as proof that he won the debate
The polls also became an issue for Fox News, who discussed the polls as well following the debate. The network’s vice president of public-opinion research sent a memo to staff explaining that the push polls do not represent “true measures of public opinion.” In total three hosts mentioned the online polls, including Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Martha MacCallum. Trump himself even thanked “Fox & Friends” for mentioning the online polls.
