Donald Trump’s presidential victory over Hillary Clinton was called prior to the Nov. 8 election by an “invisible Trump voter” on YouTube.
“An invisible Trump voter speaks out” has generated nearly 100,000 views in less than 48 hours. The commentary, delivered by pundit and comedian Gavin McInnes, predicated a “landslide” victory despite polls and New York Times articles saying otherwise. President-elect Trump’s campaign maintained for weeks that a “hidden” segment of the population was afraid to publicly state its support.
“Let’s shatter the culture of shame. Let’s shatter the culture of fear,” Mr. McInnes said while appearing “invisible” in his video. I don’t need to hide anymore. Even if you want to get me fired, you don’t know where I go to when I hit the voting booth. You don’t know how I act behind that closed gate. You may have controlled the culture. You may be an effective fascist who can make people scared, but you’re about to see a landslide as guys like me hit the polls.”
The pundit’s video was uploaded the same day The New York Times ran a piece titled “Are There Really Hidden Trump Voters?” Its author concluded that some secretive Trump voters existed, but they were unlikely to head to the polls.
“Working with the students in our undergraduate public opinion course at Cornell, we recently commissioned a nationally representative survey of 1,461 adults (carried out by the market research company GfK from Oct. 5 to 25),” the newspaper wrote. “To our surprise, we found previously undiscovered Trump supporters. But we also found that they are likely to stay home on Election Day.”
Further questioning by pollsters prompted them to conclude that “undiscovered” Trump voters would sit on their couches instead of casting a ballot.
“The [pollster’s final] question read, ’If a person believes that both of the leading candidates have flaws, is it better to vote for the least flawed candidate or not to vote?’ Not surprisingly, very few (just 6 percent) of those intending to vote for either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump thought it better not to vote. But among uncommitted voters, a striking 47 percent selected the better ’not to vote’ option,” the newspaper wrote.
“Granted, we might expect this uncommitted group to have relaxed attitudes toward showing up on Election Day. But this is precisely the group that Mr. Trump needs to turn out if he is to have any chance of victory. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, the respondents who appear to favor him — but not enough to say they will vote for him — are also more likely to believe that it may be better to just stay home,” The Times wrote.
Mr. McInnes flatly rejected the newspaper’s claim, which was born out by Mr. Trump’s ability to capture 276 electoral college votes to Mrs Clinton’s 218.
“We can identify ourselves with a little click, with a little signature, with a little ’x,’ ” Mr. McInnes said. “All of a sudden you’re going to realize that this Trump guy who you don’t think exists, this Trump supporter that you think is some dumb racist, he’s actually everything. He’s America. We are voting for Donald Trump in a landslide.”
Politico also mulled the “invisible Trump voter” theory in late October for a piece titled “GOP insiders: Polls don’t capture secret Trump vote.” Voters told the website that “barber-shop conversations” indicated a level of support that was under the mainstream media’s radar.
“I personally know many Republicans that won’t admit that they are voting for Trump. I don’t like admitting it myself. It won’t matter if Hillary is up more than 5 points, but we might be in for a surprise if Hillary’s lead is less than 5 points on Election Day,” a Virginia Republican told the website on Oct. 28.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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