President Donald Trump was livid at a recent CNN poll that found 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's lead widened to a full 14 points ahead of the current President, 55%-41%.
Trump excoriated the poll on Twitter and employed flawed Conservative pollster McLaughlin & Associates to try and refute the poll.
...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! pic.twitter.com/4IhuLUZjsv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
McLaughlin said the poll wasn't credible because it interviewed more Democrats than Republicans (there are more Democrats than Republicans in the United States.) It stated that the poll interviewed 1,259 adults instead of registered voters, but neglected to mention that the question of Trump vs Biden was only posed to 1,125 registered voters.
Never one to let go of a perceived slight, the Trump campaign soon wrote to CNN President Jeff Zucker, demanding the network retract and apologize for the poll.
The letter reads in part:
"Therefore, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. is formally requesting that CNN retract its skewed poll by publishing a full, fair and conspicuous retraction, apology, and clarification to correct its misleading conclusions.
The poll is intentionally false, defamatory, and misleading, and designed to harm the Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. campaign."The network soon responded.
CNN general counsel David Vigilante responds to the Trump campaign: "To my knowledge, this is the first time in its 40 year history that CNN had been threatened with legal action because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN's polling results." pic.twitter.com/P9AUMI80MU
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 10, 2020
Noting this was the first time in its 40 years that the network had been threatened with legal action by an American politician for its poll results, CNN general counsel David C. Vigilante said:
"To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media."
It went on to call out the Trump campaign citing the findings of McLaughlin & Associates:
"CNN is well aware of the reputation [of] John McLaughlin and McLaughlin & Associates. In 2014 his firm famously reported Eric Cantor was leading his primary challenger Dave Brat by 34 points only to lose by 11 points—a 45 point swing. The firm currently has a C/D rating from FiveThirtyEight."
"In any event, McLaughlin was able to evaluate and criticize CNN's most recent poll because CNN is transparent and publishes its polling results...That's how free speech works. It's the American way."
The letter concludes:
"Your letter is factually and legally baseless. It is yet another bad faith attempt by the campaign to threaten litigation to muzzle speech it does not want voters to read or here. Your allegations and demands are rejected in their entirety."
CNN executives weren't the only one to dismiss the demands.
The Trump campaign's complaints regarding the numerous polls showing Biden ahead appear to be in complete denial of all available information.
@saywhat25; @jeanielorraine/Bluesky
@notdoingit; @billswallow/Bluesky
@cattheminion; @kriegsspuren/Bluesky
@krassenstein/X