‘Fake news’: Trump campaign slams poll which shows him tied with Kamala Harris

The Trump campaign has slammed a new poll that shows the former president neck-and-neck with Kamala Harris in key battleground states.

The Trump campaign has lashed out at a new poll that shows the former president locked in a dead-even race with Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground states.

Former President Donald Trump and Ms Harris notched 50 per cent apiece in the battleground state average, and the vice president scored a one-point lead over the Republican nominee in a national head-to-head matchup, a CBS News/YouGov poll found, garnering 50 per cent to Trump’s 49 per cent.

Republicans haven’t won the national popular vote in a presidential election since 2004.

But Mr Trump’s team quickly cried foul, the New York Post reports.

“The Fake News Media continue to help dangerously liberal Kamala hide her record of economic failure and soft-on-crime policies. Now, as this analysis shows they’ll even put a finger on the scale of polling to inflate results for her,” senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Donald Trump has been scrambling to recalibrate his strategy against a different Democratic foe. Picture: Christian Monterrosa/AFP

Trump’s campaign disbursed a memo from a data consultant claiming that the poll may have been manipulated.

In the memo, a data analyst noted how the most recent poll saw an increase of self-identifying liberals in the sample of registered voters by about 1.7 percentage points relative to a sample used in CBS/YouGov’s poll.

Polls are typically subject to different variations in the exact sample size of those surveyed. The Post contacted CBS News and YouGov for comment.

Nonetheless, the recent CBS/YouGov survey results suggest a stunning reversal from last month when Mr Trump had a five-point lead over President Joe Biden nationally and generally had the edge in battleground states in the CBS News poll.

In the battleground states, Michigan went 48 per cent Harris to 48 per cent Trump, with Pennsylvania (50 per cent, 50 per cent), Wisconsin (49 per cent, 50 per cent), Arizona (49 per cent, 49 per cent), Georgia (47 per cent, 50 per cent), Nevada (50 per cent, 48 per cent) and North Carolina (47 per cent, 50 per cent) — all deadlocked at or near a statistical tie.

If the general election broke along those lines, Mr Trump would lead in the Electoral College 261 to 232, but still falling short of the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs in order to win.

Powering Ms Harris’ ascent in the CBS poll appears to be female, younger, and Black voters flocking back to the Democrats.

Many political observers grappled over whether the polling bump means Kamala Harris is enjoying a honeymoon phase or has long-lasting momentum. Picture: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP

The outlet’s July poll found that 58 per cent of Black voters indicated they planned to cast their ballots this cycle. Now that figure has jumped to 74 per cent.

Female voters also had high marks for Ms Harris relative to Mr Trump, with 70 per cent of them feeling her policies would help women, compared to 43 per cent who said the same about Trump, per the CBS poll.

CBS also identified a gender gap between the two candidates, which has also cropped up in a stream of other polls.

Ms Harris was the choice among 45 per cent of men and 54 per cent of women. Meanwhile, Mr Trump was the choice among 54 per cent of men and 45 per cent of women, according to the poll.

When asked about the two candidates’ cognitive abilities, 64 per cent felt Ms Harris possessed the mental faculties needed to be president, compared to 36 per cent who said she doesn’t. Fifty-one per cent indicated Mr Trump had the cognitive strength needed, relative to 49 per cent who said he doesn’t.

A plethora of polling had previously gauged deep voter angst about Mr Biden’s mental acuity, which underpinned the Democratic revolt against him last month that was catalysed by his abysmal debate performance.

Trump’s campaign disbursed a memo from a data consultant claiming that the poll may have been manipulated. Picture: Joe Raedle / Getty/AFP

Sixty-eight per cent of voters believed that the country was ready to elect a Black woman president, while 32 per cent felt the country wasn’t prepared to do that.

The CBS News/YouGov survey sampled 3102 registered voters between July 30 and August 2 with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.

Across the board, polls have shown a remarkable tightening of the race now that Ms Harris, 59, has replaced Mr Biden, 81.

Mr Trump has a 0.3 percentage point lead against Ms Harris in a five-way national race, per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.

RCP also pegged a tight race between the pair in the battleground states.

Ms Harris’ campaign has crowed about momentum, including the $310 million haul her aligned committees raked in during the month of July, more than doubling Mr Trump’s fundraising that month, as well as turnout at her rallies.

Mr Trump stumped in Atlanta on Saturday, days after Ms Harris drew an estimated crowd size of about 10,000 at a Georgia rally earlier in the week featuring Grammy-winner Megan Thee Stallion.

The Trump campaign’s top pollster Tony Fabrizio previously warned that Ms Harris would enjoy a “honeymoon phase” in polling over the early days of her abrupt ascension.

“That means we will start to see public polling — particularly national public polls — where Harris is gaining on or even leading President Trump,” he explained in a memo last month.

“While the public polls may change in the short run and she may consolidate a bit more of the Democrat base, Harris can’t change who she is or what she’s done. Stay tuned …” he added.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.

Originally published as ‘Fake news’: Trump campaign slams poll which shows him tied with Kamala Harris