Democrats, political commentators dismiss polling results showing Trump's gains among Black voters

Liberal pundits and Democrats don't seem to believe polling showing former President Trump gaining with Black voters, with some even dismissing the notion completely during recent interviews and media appearances.

"Something is amiss with the polling. I call your attention to the recent polls in Maryland. The African American woman [Angela Alsobrooks] running for the United States Senate nomination — the Sunday before the election, one poll had her five down, the other poll had her seven down — and she won by 13. How do you explain that? That’s 20 points," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., told Politico's Ryan Lizza during the "Deep Dive" podcast, after previously expressing concern over Black voter turnout for Biden.

Multiple polls show President Biden's support among Black voters has dipped between 15 and 20 percentage points since 2020 in key swing states and in general election surveys. Biden still holds a strong lead among the key voting bloc, but if those surveys are accurate and Trump holds his ground with other demographics, he would be hard to beat.

"Anybody who believes that Donald Trump will get 30% of the Black male vote or 12% of the Black female vote — I got a bridge down there on Johns Island I’ll sell you," Clyburn continued.

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Clyburn blamed the media for the poll results on Tuesday, accusing news outlets of "repeating these things rather than reporting what’s actually happening."

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"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin dismissed the polls in late May.

"81% of Black men, 81%, are in the Democratic Party. So I don’t want to hear any more that Black men are voting for Trump. Black women resoundingly will show up for Biden, and they’re going to bring their sons, they’re going to bring their grandsons, they're going to bring their husbands and the Black vote will turn out for President Biden," Hostin argued.

Co-host Sara Haines pushed back and said Hostin referenced a poll that said Biden had 92% of the Black vote in 2020, noting that the "trend was down." Biden's Black support has since dipped to 77%, according to a Pew Research survey released in May. Biden had 92% of the Black vote in 2020, according to Pew.

Hostin also mocked the idea that Black Republicans exist at all while discussing Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and recent comments he made to a group of Black conservatives.

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"These Black men that he was speaking with, I’d love to see them," Hostin said. "It would be like looking at unicorns."

"I thought it was interesting that the framing was a room of Black Republicans," Hostin said. She held her hands up to her eyes and jokingly scanned the audience, adding, "Where are they? Where are they? Because if you look at the stats, 77% – 81%, I’m sorry, of Black men are part of the Democratic Party."

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released on Sunday found that support for Biden among Black voters has dropped around 20 percentage points since the last election in both Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, the poll found 15% of Black voters support Trump, compared to 54% supporting Biden.

Trump received just 9% of the Black vote in Michigan in the 2020 election.

The former president gets 11% of the Black vote in Pennsylvania, according to the poll, which is up three points compared to 2020. A majority, 56%, of Black voters still prefer Biden in the state.

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Harry Enten, a senior data reporter at CNN, said Tuesday that Trump's strength among Black voters, according to the polls, could be "historic."

"I keep looking for this to change, to go back to a historical norm, and it, simply put, has not yet," Enten said.

"In 2020, Joe Biden was getting 86% of the African-American vote. Look at where it is now. It’s 70%, that’s a 16-point drop," Enten said, referring to an aggregate of network polling. "And more than that, it’s not just that Joe Biden is losing ground, it’s that Donald Trump is gaining ground. You go from 7%, single digits at this point in 2020, to now 21%."

CNN's Bakari Sellars, a former South Carolina state legislator, argued it was just "poor polling."

"If Donald Trump gets those numbers, then I truly believe that I can sell Harry this bridge in Brooklyn," Sellers said. "That’s just not happening. I think that people have to just level-set a little bit, relax a little bit, stop hyperventilating. Donald Trump is not going to get 20% of the Black vote. He’s simply not."

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CNN's Sara Sidner pushed back on Sellars and added, "numbers are numbers."

Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of Biden's campaign, dismissed the polling during a CNN interview on Monday.

"There’s no universe in which Donald Trump is going to get 21 percent of the Black vote," Landrieu said. "That’s never going to happen. And so it’s not that we’re not worried about that, but we’re fighting very, very hard for every vote."

Landrieu said that while polling was important, it was also often wrong.

Polls and recent interviews with Black voters also show that they're unhappy with the Biden-Trump match-up, as several pundits argue they could stay home on election day rather than turn out for either candidate.

The Pew Survey, conducted in May, found that 49% of Black voters would replace both Biden and Trump on the ticket.

"I don’t know how much longer we have to say, this isn’t about Black voters choosing between Biden and Trump. This is about Black voters choosing between Biden and the couch, OK? It’s not about Trump. Trump has no chance at getting a majority of Black voters. Eighty-one percent of Black men are Democrats. Ninety-seven percent of Black women are registered Democrats. So this is what the scenario looks like, and it’s just a fallacy," Hostin said Monday during "The View."

A Black male voter described the choice during a recent interview with ABC News' Byron Pitts.

"I’ll vote, but they’re our only options. So it’s, like … 'Hey, do you want to burn your hand in the oven or do you want to burn your hand in the toaster?" Rapper Hitman Holla said.

The Biden campaign and Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Original article source: Democrats, political commentators dismiss polling results showing Trump's gains among Black voters