Amid fresh polling that suggests President Trump has a tough path to reelection, Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager is dismissing the utility of modern polling almost entirely.
“I just think the country is too complex now just to call a couple hundred people and ask them what they think,” campaign manager Brad Parscale said in an interview, portions of which aired Wednesday on “CBS This Morning.”
“There are so many ways and different people that are going to show up to vote now — the way turnout now works and the abilities that we have to turn out voters … the polling can’t understand that,” Mr. Parscale said. “That’s why it was so wrong in 2016.”
“It was 100 percent wrong — nobody got it right — not one public poll,” he said. “And the reason why — it’s not 1962 anymore. It’s not a place where there’s only a few ways and decisions and everyone lines up to vote like a good old American.”
“Now there’s a lot of distractions … the world’s changed,” he said. “None of these polls mean anything. It’s the biggest joke in politics — it’s the fakest thing.”
Recent polling has shown Mr. Trump trailing his potential Democratic rivals in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the campaign recently parted ways with a few of its pollsters after leaks of unflattering internal numbers.
But Mr. Parscale said if the election was held now, Mr. Trump would win in an “electoral landslide.”
The president formally kicked off his 2020 reelection campaign at an event in Florida on Tuesday.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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