In a dramatic turn of events, President-elect Donald Trump declared his intentions on Monday to initiate legal proceedings against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer. This decision is a follow-up to the recent survey results disclosed by Selzer, portraying Vice President Kamala Harris as the projected frontrunner in the Iowa pre-2024 Presidential election scenario. In these findings, Harris was shown to have outperformed Trump in Iowa by a margin of 47% to 44%, an outcome that Selzer attributed mainly to Harris’s striking appeal among the youthful, college-educated population in addition to older females.
Trump, however, vehemently disagreed with these projections, declaring them biased during a press conference on Monday. He defended his standpoint by citing his previous victory in the state of Iowa where he clinched the win with an indisputable 14-point difference, at 56% to 42.7%. His victory was not only exemplary but had also come as a shock to many since it marked the first occasion a Republican nominee managed to garner the popular vote since 2004.
Furthermore, the President-elect’s triumph over Harris was evident in the 2024 contests in all seven battleground states. Such a sweeping win raised questions about the reliability of Selzer’s poll predictions that had anticipated Harris leading. Post the election results, Selzer admitted her ‘big miss’ in the election forecasting, setting off a buzz within the political and media circles.
Selzer, who currently holds the presidential role at Selzer & Company, asserted that her firm had employed consistent polling methods for both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Interestingly, these past election predictions had shown a powerful lead for the President-elect consistently. The stark contrast in the election results and the predictions for the 2024 presidential polls as made by Selzer lead to intense criticisms, accusing her of data manipulation.
Despite the current discourse, Selzer professed that the poll projections could have inadvertently galvanized Republican voters. Stirred by the supposed lead for the Vice president, it was believed that this could have motivated Republicans to rally in more significant numbers to ensure a decisive victory for Trump.
In a separate but related incident, ABC News, along with their esteemed host George Stephanopoulos, concluded on Saturday to settle a defamation lawsuit previously lodged by Trump. The settlement involved the offering of a charitable contribution amounting to $15 million to the President-elect by the cut-off date of December 24.
This lawsuit had its seeds sown in a particular segment broadcasted on March 10, wherein Stephanopoulos purportedly implied an unfounded accusation against Trump. The host claimed that Trump was found guilty in a civil case involving rape charges filed by former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. Pursuant to this erroneous proclamation, Trump initiated legal proceedings against the host and the network, leading ultimately to the aforementioned settlement.