#Trump hires pollster who says CNN skewed survey for low approval rating

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday hired a pollster to scrutinize a CNN poll that pegged him at an approval rating of just 38 percent in the wake of historic civil unrest, his worst since January 2019.

The analysis from long-time GOP pollster John McLaughlin, which Trump shared on Twitter, accused CNN of deliberately under-polling Republicans and those likely to vote in what he claimed was an attempt to suppress the president’s supporters.

“They continue to poll adults or registered voters that skew away from likely voters,” McLaughlin wrote in the letter addressed to Trump on Monday.

“So instead of a 33% Republican turnout which actually happened in 2020, they are reporting polls on only 26%, 25% or even 24% of Republicans,” he continued, contrasting the CNN poll with a CBS News poll which recently found a much tighter race between Trump and Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

“The bias seems to be an intentional strategy to suppress your vote,” McLaughin added, later accusing the liberal TV network of creating a poll to “manufacture an anti-Trump outcome.”

In a tweet sharing McLaughin’s analysis, Trump accused CNN of trying to dampen enthusiasm ahead of the November general election.

“I have retained highly respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates, to analyze today’s CNN Poll (and others), which I felt were FAKE based on the incredible enthusiasm we are receiving,” Trump tweeted.

“Read analysis for yourself. This is the same thing they and others did when we defeated Crooked Hillary Clinton in 2016. They are called SUPPRESSION POLLS, and are put out to dampen enthusiasm. Despite 3 ½ years of phony Witch Hunts, we are winning, and will close it out on November 3rd!” he continued.

Monday’s CNN poll found only 38 percent of people approved of the way Trump is handling the presidency — a 7 point slide in the past month amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and unprecedented unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

It also found Trump was trailing Biden by 14 points, the largest gap to date.

But of the 1,259 people interviewed, only 25 percent of those polled were Republican, compared to 32 percent who described themselves as Democrats and 44 percent who described themselves as independents or members of another party.

McLaughlin noted that the poll was conducted between June 2-5, before Friday’s announcement that 2.5 million jobs were added to the economy in May, defying economists’ predictions.