JD Vance thinks polls showing surge of Harris support are "fake"

“The Trump campaign is in a very, very good spot,” Vance said in a recent interview, disputing Harris' momentum

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published August 18, 2024 12:33PM (EDT)

U.S. Senator and 2024 Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance speaks during a campaign event at the Milwaukee Police Association in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 16, 2024.  (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Senator and 2024 Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance speaks during a campaign event at the Milwaukee Police Association in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 16, 2024. (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Just as Donald Trump has done his best to downplay the Democratic excitement surrounding the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign — even going so far as to falsely accuse Harris' team of using artificial intelligence to make crowds appear larger at rallies — his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is out here disputing polls showing consistent momentum for their opponents, calling them "fake."

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Vance was asked to comment on "a rough couple of weeks for his campaign," as described by Mediaite, and New York Times/Siena polling indicating that "Harris is now leading Trump among likely voters in Arizona, 50 percent to 45 percent, and has even edged ahead Trump in North Carolina — a state Trump won four years ago — while narrowing his lead significantly in Georgia and Nevada,” and his reply went down a familiar path — that it's fake news, according to him. 

Vance stated his opinion to host Shannon Bream that surveys “tend to radically overstate Democrats," and that their own calculations show the “sugar high” that Harris' campaign is experiencing to be “leveling off.”

“Consistently what you’ve seen in 2016 and 2020, is that the media uses fake polls to drive down Republican turnout and to create dissension and conflict within Republican voters,” Vance said. “The Trump campaign is in a very, very good spot."

As Axios points out in their coverage of Vance's claim, "The polls aren't always accurate, but they certainly aren't fake," highlighting that "nearly every major pollster has shown Harris surging," maintaining a 6-point lead, 51% to 45%.

 


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