Trump Lawyers Send Cease and Desist Letter Demanding CNN Apologize and Delete Poll Showing Biden Winning
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President Donald Trump‘s campaign sent CNN President Jeff Zucker a cease and desist letter following a stunning poll that showed former Vice President Joe Biden up 14 points ahead of Trump on Monday.
CNN has rejected the campaign’s letter and demand for an apology, the company said in a story Wednesday afternoon. In it, CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic said, “We stand by our poll,” and the story refuted the campaign’s letter in detail.
Here’s the Trump campaign cease and desist letter to CNN. pic.twitter.com/NhmqbV1YWF
— Ted Johnson (@tedstew) June 10, 2020
The letter said the poll was “designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling” and called it a “stunt and a phony poll to cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President.” The letter was signed by two Trump campaign officials.
The CNN/SSRS poll asked 1,259 adults, “Suppose that the presidential election was being held today and you had to choose between Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate and Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s candidate. Who would you be more likely to vote for?” resulting in Biden’s favor. Trump immediately denounced the poll on Twitter, calling it “FAKE.”
CNN Polls are as Fake as their Reporting. Same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary. The Dems would destroy America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
Trump then posted a letter from McLaughlin & Associates calling it a “SUPPRESSION POLL.” FiveThirtyEight has McLaughlin & Associates as one of its least accurate polls, calculating for mean-reverted bias.
“The latest skewed media polls must be intentional,” the letter read. “It’s clear that NBC, ABC and CNN who have Democrat operatives … are consistently under-polling Republicans and therefore, reporting biased polls.”
…Crooked Hillary Clinton in 2016. They are called SUPPRESSION POLLS, and are put out to dampen enthusiasm. Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd! pic.twitter.com/4IhuLUZjsv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
Other polls, including a new Gallup poll released Wednesday that has Trump’s approval rating down 10 points, have also reported double-digit deficits for Trump. Still, Trump and his campaign insist he’s polling 96 percent in the Republican party and closer to Biden than most polls suggest.
Wow! 96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party (and I believe this was before the “GREAT” Jobs Numbers yesterday). Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2020
