‘Republicans Ahead! Democrats Ahead! Republicans Ahead!’ Biden Disputes Reliability of Polls Ahead of Midterms

President Joe Biden disputed the reliability of polls ahead of the midterms, citing complaints from pollsters about the terrain upon which public opinion is measured for such contests.

President Biden visited Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C., Monday to encourage staffers in the closing weeks before the midterm elections.

Polling conditions for Democrats have improved dramatically since the summer, but recently the generic ballot and individual races have tightened. President Biden offered his take, citing problems in measuring public opinion and predicting a late shift in his party’s direction:

You know, whether we maintain control of the Senate and the House is a big deal. And so far, we’re running against the tide, and we’re beating the tide. But we just have 15 days until one of the most important elections in our lifetime. And it’s going to shape the way this country look like for the coming decade, for real.

Now the polls have been all over the place. First of all, if you speak to most pollsters, they’re not sure anymore — not about the outcome, but about polling.

No, I’m not being facetious. It’s awful hard to do it these days. It’s awful hard to do it these days.

“Republicans ahead.” “Democrats ahead.” “Republicans ahead.” But it’s going to close, I think, with seeing one more shift: “Democrats ahead” in the closing days. (Applause.)

So, look, the last couple weeks — I don’t pay attention to anything having to do with the polls, I just pay attention to what’s happening on the phone, and we’re knocking on doors.

The president appears to be referencing a phenomenon that was the subject of a recent New York Times op-ed by Quoctrung Bui and informed by interviews with 10 top pollsters who identified a number of difficulties:

Pollsters are holding their breath. Their time-tested method of randomly dialing up people isn’t working like it used to. Voter turnout in the last two national elections was a blowout compared to years past. Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters seem to be shunning calls to participate in polls.

But what’s really troubling pollsters going into this election is that it’s unclear how much more error these problems will add during this cycle. In fact, many think it’s unknowable.

But Biden has referenced the issue before, most recently in an interview with Jonathan Capehart that was conducted on Friday, during which he cited the difficulty pollsters have in reaching voters by phone.

Watch above via C-SPAN.