‘He’s unhinged’: Trump still stokes debunked election fraud even after he won
Despite winning, Trump still wants to throw a tantrum after pre-election polls in Iowa showed he was behind Kamala Harris. Those polls ended up being quite off base, with Trump winning the district by 13 points. Now he’s going after the pollster that gave him such a scare.
Trump has demanded a probe into pollster J. Ann Selzer after a pre-election survey for the Des Moines Register showed Harris leading Trump, 47% to 44%. This result had the GOP up in arms and also allowed the Democrats some false hope that they would secure the area, but both would be surprised. On the day of the election, Trump wound up beating Harris 56% to 42.7%, taking 13 points in the process. But Trump isn’t willing to let the Nov. 1 polling go.
Trump took to his social media site, Truth Social, to call for an investigation into Selzer and her “totally Fake poll.” With no evidence to back him up, Trump cited the discrepancy between the figures as “possible ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited ‘newspaper’ and stated that “An investigation is fully called for!” So it would seem that Trump is happy to investigate everyone who dares even hint that he could potentially fail but will call off the investigation against him and his role in the January 6 Insurrection. This had led some to call out the President-elects “unhinged” behavior.
This is crazy but he’s actually going to do 90% of this shit. He’s unhinged.
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 3:58 AM
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The polling was a ‘big miss’
The renowned pollster herself identified the results as a “big miss.” In a column for the Des Moines Register, Selzer wrote,
“In response to a critique that I “manipulated” the data, or had been paid (by some anonymous source, presumably on the Democratic side), or that I was exercising psyops or some sort of voter suppression: I told more than one news outlet that the findings from this last poll could actually energize and activate Republican voters who thought they would likely coast to victory. Maybe that’s what happened.”
Selzer has since retired from her work as a polling officer, a decision she says she made ahead of this incident. She and Des Moines have since released a 19-page review of the data but even with all the information she found “She has since retired from her work as a polling officer, a decision she says she made ahead of this incident. She and Des Moines have since released a 19-page review of the data but even with all the information she found “nothing to illuminate the miss.”
Responding to the cries of election fraud, Selzer said in an interview with KTIV, “I’ve done the polls that he liked and praised me, so there’s just a thin veneer of his being concerned with the quality of my polling that has nothing to substantiate it. So it’s annoying, but more than annoying, it’s really a dig at my reputation.” She has already been warned by local police that there have been threats made toward her circulating online, leading to her seeking additional security for her safety.
Trump has been extremely nonchalant about labeling people as frauds or criminals throughout his political, and business, career knowing full well the power his words wield. His followers have often used his rhetoric to go after those he points his fingers at, which is exactly what we saw at the January 6th Insurrection. The idea that this man is now going to be in the most influential position in the world once more is, frankly, terrifying.
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