Trump campaign denies internal polling data showing defeat by Biden

Trump in Rose Garden
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

President Trump's internal campaign polling showed him losing in a hypothetical race against former Vice President Joe Biden in a number of battleground states, ABC News reported Friday.

The polling data reportedly showed Biden with double-digit leads in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida, but GOP strategist Tony Fabrizio called reports of those numbers "incomplete and misleading." Fabrizio, who is the pollster for Trump's re-election campaign, said the data was representing a "worst-case scenario," not the predicted result.

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Trump has told reporters that his internal polling shows him winning every single state he won in 2016, and The New York Times reports he told aides to deny that the campaign's survey showed him behind Biden. He also denied the poll existed at all. While Fabrizio says the data is simply evaluating "the most unfavorable turnout model possible," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale had a different explanation. He said the only reason the numbers looked so bad for Trump is because they reflect the time before Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report was released, and told ABC News that since the "ancient" polls were conducted in March, "we have seen huge swings in the President's favor across the 17 states we have polled."

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Summer Meza, The Week US

Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.