Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is demanding that CNN apologize for a poll that shows Joe Biden with a 14-point lead over the president.
The campaign also wants the news network to retract the poll, supposedly because it’s biased (but really because it points out the serious challenges Trump faces in his quest for a second term).
The campaign whined about the negative poll stated its position in a cease-and-desist letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker. It argued that the CNN poll is “designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling.”
The letter — signed by the Trump campaign’s senior legal adviser, Jenna Ellis, and chief operating officer Michael Glassner — called CNN’s poll “phony” and “a stunt” meant to “cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President.”
Trump’s campaign minions also requested that CNN publish a “full, fair, and conspicuous retraction, apology, and clarification to correct its misleading conclusions.”
CNN’s response?
“We stand by our poll,” Matt Dornic, a network spokesman, said.
The Trump campaign’s letter griped that the CNN poll surveyed only 1,259 people — only 25% of whom were Republican — and that it was taken before last Friday’s better-than-expected jobs report.
CNN said political pollsters typically sample registered voters rather than likely ones at this stage of the race because it’s difficult to project who’s actually going to vote in an election five months from now.
Deadline.com reported that Biden also beats Trump in other polls by an average of 8.1 points.
This isn’t the first time, the Trump campaign has threatened the media for accurately covering the president.
In March, the campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to TV stations that were airing an ad criticizing how Trump handled the coronavirus crisis.
The complete CNN letter can be seen in this tweet.
CNN lawyers responded with their own tweet.
Twitter users offered up their trademark mockery.