President Trump’s campaign fired multiple pollsters after internal numbers showing him losing to numerous Democrats in key battleground states leaked to the media, CNN reports.
Last week, ABC News reported that Trump’s internal poll numbers showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading him 55-39 in Pennsylvania and 51-41 in Wisconsin. The data also showed Trump losing Florida by 7 points and leading in deep-red Texas by just 2 points.
CNN reports that the campaign fired several pollsters after the numbers leaked. The campaign cut ties with Brett Lloyd, president and CEO of The Polling Company, which was founded by Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. The campaign also axed Michael Baselice, the president and CEO of Baselice & Associates Inc., who was close to Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale.
“They were fake polls that were released by somebody that is — it’s ridiculous,” Trump said last week when the reports first broke. “They’re giving out phony polls. These are polls that we have, that nobody saw. We do very little polling because I’m not a huge believer in polling… But we have some internal polling — very little — and it’s unbelievably strong. The strongest I’ve ever been is exactly today.”
Public polls look increasingly bad for Trump:
Trump’s internal poll numbers look very similar to public poll numbers. A series of recent polls show Trump losing badly not just to Biden but Bernie Sanders, and trailing other candidates as well.
A Quinnipiac poll showed Trump losing by 13 to Biden, 9 to Sanders, 8 to Kamala Harris, 7 to Elizabeth Warren, 5 to Pete Buttigieg, and 5 to Corey Booker.
A Fox News poll released over the weekend shows Trump losing by 10 to Biden, 9 to Sanders, 2 to Warren, and trailing Harris and Buttigieg by a point.
An Emerson poll from May showed Trump losing North Carolina by 12 to Biden and by 8 to Sanders. He also trailed Buttigieg and was tied with Warren.
A Detroit News poll showed Trump losing Michigan by 12 to Biden and Sanders, by 6 to Buttigieg, 4 to Warren, and 3 to Harris. A separate EPIC-MRA poll showed Trump losing the state to Biden by 11.
There have not been any recent public polls in Wisconsin but a March Emerson poll showed Biden leading Trump by 8 in Wisconsin.
A Quinnipiac poll earlier this month even showed Trump losing deep-red Texas to Biden by 4 points.
