In an interview with Fox News that was broadcast on Thursday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway dismissed national polls as a “colossal waste of time and money,” Mediaite reported.
Conway made the remarks during a conversation with anchor Bret Baier, only hours after Fox News released its latest national survey . The poll showed President Donald Trump trailing the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden by 12 percentage points.
“Also I know you’re talking a lot about the polls,” Conway told Baier.
“As I’m a pollster — I’ve been a pollster for many years. Respectfully, we never did one single national poll when I was campaign manager of Trump/Pence 2016. Why? They are a colossal waste of time and money,” she said.
The network’s survey showed that Biden is stronger than Trump among African Americans, suburbanites, voters under the age of 30 and voters aged 65 and older. It also found that Trump has lost ground among white evangelicals, rural voters and independents. Biden is viewed favorably by 53 percent of Americans, while 43 percent view Trump favorably, the poll said.
But, according to Conway, national polls are irrelevant. “Statewide polls are really the gold standard,” she argued, adding that even David Plouffe, who managed one of former President Barack Obama’s campaigns, agrees with her.
The White House counselor argued that statewide polls paint a much different picture of the 2020 presidential election and predict a close race.
“The polls in states are about where I would expect them to be, depending on the poll, with Trump and Biden both under 50 percent in most of those statewide polls and within a few points of each other.”
However, as Mediaite noted, polls show that Biden is ahead of Trump in most battleground states. The former vice president is polling ahead of the commander-in-chief in New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin.
Most surveys suggest that Trump’s approval rating has decreased. As CNN pointed out, recent Gallup research found that 39 percent of Americans approve of the president’s performance in office. This could be a major red flag for Trump, given that presidential approval ratings usually don’t move much from June to November of an election year.
Over the past few weeks, Biden has steadily expanded his lead over Trump, both nationwide and in key swing states. In early June, the president reportedly held an emergency meeting with his top advisers to address the issue. Trump and his campaign team allegedly concluded that defining Biden to the electorate will be key to winning the election.
