Several Republican lawmakers are saying they mistrust polls that show former Vice President Joe Biden's lead growing larger over President Donald Trump both nationally and in battleground states.
"I think they're in all likelihood underreporting support for the president," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is seeking reelection while polls in his state show Biden and Trump in a dead heat, reports The Hill. "That's what we saw in 2016. I'm always a little skeptical when I see a poll."
National surveys show Biden leading Trump by almost 10 points and show Biden is ahead in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. According to the website FiveThirtyEight, Biden is leading Trump by just over nine percentage points, at 50.6% to 41.4%.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he's skeptical about a poll showing Biden and Trump in a dead heat in his state as well, after Trump carried Iowa by nine points in 2016.
“Because of previous years’ poll being wrong, I think it’s legitimate to question. I don’t know whether they’re accurate or not,” said Grassley.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said several surveys also showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump at this point in the election cycle four years ago. According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll on June 26, 2016, Clinton held a 12-point lead over Trump at that time.
A New York Times/Siena College poll last week put Biden over Trump by 50% to 36%, but Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., scoffed at those numbers.
“No one is going to win a U.S. presidential election by 14 points,” he said. "At the end of the day, my prediction is this race winds up where it was always going to be: a very close race with a very narrow margin in a handful of states. You’ll see those numbers get closer.”
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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