Article originally published 18/08/2016: due to a technical issue this article may have resurfaced for some readers, and the original publish date may not have been visible.
Donald Trump is not in a good place. We know this because he says things that even Republicans find unpalatable, from a war of words with the parents of an US Muslim war hero to suggesting it’s ok to assassinate Hillary Clinton. And he has just changed his top team for a second time.
We also know this because the polls tell us as much. And while in the UK the name of the polls is in the dirt post-2015 General Election and ‘Brexit’, they’re pretty much all we’ve got before a vote. It’s how politics works.
So Michael Cohen, executive vice president at the Trump Organization and a special counsel to Donald Trump, must have known he was on thin ice when he went on CNN on Tuesday to suggest everything was beautiful in The Donald’s world.
Yet presenter Brianna Keilar was going to take him to task, and during 30 awkward seconds - which seemed to last a millennia - Cohen tried to resist received wisdom. Here’s how it went down:
Brianna Keilar: You say it’s not a shakeup, but you guys are down.
Michael Cohen: Says who?
BK: Polls. Most of them. All of them.
MC: Says who?
BK: Polls. I just told you. I answered your question.
MC: OK. Which polls?
BK: All of them.
MC: OK.
To be clear, Trump hasn’t led a nationwide general election poll since July 24. Later, Cohen tweeted that he thought CNN was guilty of inaccurate reporting. Maybe he should have said that at the time.