Top Pollster Trashes ABC/WaPo for Publishing ‘Laughable’ Poll Showing Trump Up 10: ‘Will Be a Lingering Embarrassment for You’

A leading political pollster called out ABC News and the Washington Post for publishing their shocking poll Sunday which showed President Joe Biden trailing former President Donald Trump by 10 points.

In a post to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, noted political scientist Larry Sabato — the publisher of the widely-read Sabato’s Crystal Ball — slammed ABC and the Post for putting out a survey which they referred to as an “outlier.”

“Ignore the Washington Post – ABC poll,” Sabato wrote. “It’s a ridiculous outlier (Trump up 10 over Biden—laughable). My question: How could you even publish a poll so absurd on its face? Will be a lingering embarrassment for you.”

Ignore the Washington Post – ABC poll. It’s a ridiculous outlier (Trump up 10 over Biden—laughable). My question: How could you even publish a poll so absurd on its face? Will be a lingering embarrassment for you.

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 24, 2023

Sabato added in a subsequent post, “just plain embarrassing—for them.”

Just plain embarrassing—for them.

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 24, 2023

Sabato was not alone in calling out the Post and ABC. New York Times chief political analyst Nate Cohn noted that the Post and ABC also referred to their previous Trump-Biden poll as an outlier.

“I do have a fairly major quibble with ABC/Post here: if you release consecutive ‘outlying’ poll results — R+7 in May, R+10 today — you don’t get to dismiss your results,” Cohn wrote on X. “If it happens twice in a row in the same race, it’s clear that this is the result of some element of your approach, and either you either need to decide you’re good with it and defend it or you need to go home.”

If it happens twice in a row in the same race, it's clear that this is the result of some element of your approach, and either you either need to decide you're good with it and defend it or you need to go home

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) September 24, 2023

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