President Donald Trump’s re-election strategy appears to hinge on denying the reality that’s in front of him and deflecting when faced with even the slightest scrutiny over his own behavior and that of his associates. Following a round of polling results from Fox News that showed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden up in key states including Pennsylvania and Ohio, Trump rushed to Twitter to try and discredit Fox News polling.
One of the worst polls in 2016 was the @FoxNews Poll. They were so ridiculously wrong. Fox said they were going to change pollsters, but they didn’t. They totally over sample Democrats to a point that a child could see what is going on. Rasmussen, which was accurate, at 52%.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
Although there’s a narrative that polls were systematically faulty in 2016, on the national level, they were actually rather on the mark. The final RealClearPolitics polling average had Clinton up nationally by 3.2 percent, and she won the national popular vote by 2.1 percent. The problem is the level of state-level variation that her comparatively thin national leading margin allowed for. Trump won enough individual states to win the electoral college. This time around, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s national lead is currently over twice what Clinton’s was right before the election. As of Friday morning, RealClearPolitics has him up nationally by an average of 6.6 percent.
The “official policy” of the federal government is *actually* reflected in its litigating position in #SCOTUS—where it’s arguing that *all* of the Affordable Care Act, including its coverage for pre-existing conditions, should be struck down. https://t.co/7baC8ikjRj
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) September 24, 2020
On Friday morning, Trump also ranted about a couple of state-level issues. For example, he self-confidently ranted:
‘Working hard in New Mexico. I built the Wall (security) and will totally protect your Second Amendment (The Dems want to obliterate it!). Will be there soon!’
Actually, he did not “build the wall” according to any reasonable original understanding of the phrase. The vast majority of construction that’s gone on at the southern border was replacement work for physical barriers that were already there. Also, no, Democrats don’t want to destroy the Second Amendment — period. He is lying.
Working hard in New Mexico. I built the Wall (security) and will totally protect your Second Amendment (The Dems want to obliterate it!). Will be there soon! https://t.co/feRRkLFM9a
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
Trump also rehashed his paranoid claims about supposed fraud in the usage of mail-in ballots. He ranted:
‘RINO Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is unsuccessfully trying to defend Mail In Ballots, when there is fraud being found all over the place. Just look at some of the recent races, or the Trump Ballots in Pennsylvania that were thrown into the garbage. Wrong Charlie!’
Fraud is not “being found all over the place.” It’s just not. In one particular case that he mentions — less than 10 Trump ballots that were discovered after having been discarded in Pennsylvania — there is not a single apparent piece of evidence of any kind of conspiracy or fraud. Maybe it was a mistake.
RINO Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is unsuccessfully trying to defend Mail In Ballots, when there is fraud being found all over the place. Just look at some of the recent races, or the Trump Ballots in Pennsylvania that were thrown into the garbage. Wrong Charlie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response below:
