CNN polling expert Harry Enten is disputing President Joe Biden’s assertion that he was underestimated by the polls in 2020.
“The idea that the polls underestimated Joe Biden last time around, simply put, does not hold any water,” Enten told CNN’s John Berman Monday as he noted polls in 2020 repeatedly showed Biden several points ahead of former President Donald Trump — undercutting the claim polls showed him in a similarly precarious position then as he is now.
The polling guru then noted Congressional Republican candidates were actually underestimated in 2022, and that Trump did better in the general election than the polls showed in July of 2016.
He added, “If anything, the polls have underestimated Republicans during the Trump era — especially in the presidential races in 2016 and in 2020.
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Berman noted an average of polls shows Biden losing to Trump by three points and asked, “How unusual is it for a Republican to be ahead by this much right now?”
Enten noted in 2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, and 2004, Democratic candidates were leading in the polls in July.
“You have to go all the way back to 2000, to George W. Bush being ahead in the early July polls. You have to go all the way back to the end of the 20th Century, beginning of the 21st Century, to find a Republican ahead at this point. Twenty-four years!” he explained.
Enten added, “At this particular point, the idea that a Democrat is ahead, there are voters in the electorate who are dealing with a poll position they have never seen before and that is a Republican leading in the national popular vote.”
