by Former President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at stunning polls that have him narrowly trailing in ruby-red Iowa — as he claimed without evidence that far more Democrats than Republicans were polled.
Trump also claimed the poll was “fake” before attacking it and the news media as “corrupt.”
“We’ve been waiting nine years for this, and we’ve been given two days and we’ve got all this nonsense with the press and with the fake stuff and fake polls,” Trump told his supporters in Lititz, Pennsylvania. “And besides, the polls are as corrupt as some writers were at the time.”
The results of the Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, released Saturday evening, showed Harris leading Trump, 47% to 44%, among 808 likely voters surveyed Monday through Thursday.
It came the same day that Emerson College said Trump led Harris, 53% to 43%, among 800 likely voters in Iowa surveyed Thursday and Friday.
Trump said without evidence that “when you read the Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, “they interviewed a lot more Democrats than Republicans.”
“Why did they do that? Why do they do that? And I think there’s a law that says they have to say that because they would have preferred not to say that,” he said, according to a video clip posted to YouTube by Forbes. Breaking news.
Neither the Register’s Saturday evening report nor the five-page summary of the poll on its website indicate that those surveyed are party affiliated.
But the Register said the results were driven by women, especially those who are older or politically independent.
“Age and gender are the two most dynamic factors explaining these numbers,” pollster J. Ann Selzer, whose company conducted the survey, told the Register.
The Register said the results also showed that Trump had the support of 89% of self-identified Republicans, with 5% backing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Among self-identified independents, the split was 46% to 39% in favor of Harris, who was also supported by 97% of Democrats.
The poll also found that 16% of those who do not support Trump in this election have done so in the past.
Lifelong Republican Ralph Newbanks, 63, of Solon, Iowa, told the Register he planned to vote for Harris.
“It’s not what I like about her, it’s what I don’t like about Trump,” he said. “Since 2020 and the Capitol riots, I couldn’t vote for Trump if he paid me, not for love or money.”
Iowa is a solidly Republican state, with 669,053 active voters registered as Republicans and 495,751 as Democrats, according to figures posted online Friday by Secretary of State Paul Pate.
