A recent New York Times/Siena poll revealed that President Joe Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in five out of six swing states, including Nevada, where he is behind by a significant eleven points. Discussing the poll, Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” became visibly upset and snapped at MSNBC analyst John Heilemann.
Scarborough, commenting on the poll, angrily criticized what he perceived as its questionable methodology, noting that other polls show Biden and Trump are currently much closer. He argued that the poll’s findings are inaccurate, while Heilemann somewhat pushed back against Scarborough’s claims.
Scarborough alleged that The New York Times is trying to warp the election, not accurately reporting the facts, saying, “The New York Times right now is actively shaping the election cycles where this poll comes out on a Sunday and on Monday people go, ‘Oh, and I heard it,’ and I’m sitting there going, oh, don’t be so stupid.”
Continuing, he alleged that the NYT — which has always never covered Trump fairly — has wildly skewed polls, adding, “There’s one poll that’s wildly skewed every time, and it does shape if it’s a New York Times poll versus the Morning Consult poll. And the New York Times then amplifies it 15, 16, 17 times. It warps reality.” He added, “And everybody responds to that in the media and in the political world.”
Heilemann attempted a little pushback as he and Scarborough disagreed over whether the NYT is “systematically putting the polls out in a way to amplify them to drive the news circle,” saying, “I’m curious, as someone who understands your level of sophistication about reading the media, why you think that is true? What I’m trying to say is I agree with you. The best bulwark against any polls – outliers or anything else — for people who are actually consumers of this information is to not let any given news outlet or any given poll shape your perception of the race unduly.”
Scarborough snapped, saying, “But John, that is not realistic. And I’ll tell you why it’s not realistic. I know people come up to you after every New York Times/Siena poll comes out. It completely changes the political battlefield out there for about a week, a week and a half. It distorts the questions that are asked of the White House. It distorts the questions that are asked of Donald Trump. It distorts all of the opinions. It distorts everything.”
Continuing, he said, “This keeps happening every month when this comes out. And then about two weeks later, after the residue of the New York Times/Siena poll leaves, people go, ‘I think Joe Biden is on a winning streak.’ And two weeks later, it comes out again, and it’s garbage and an outlier.”
He concluded, “Yes, the New York Times when they have all of these experts questioning the methodology when they are calling 20% of the people likely voters who never voted before or who didn’t vote in the last two primaries. When they are even quoting people who say they are switching their vote from Joe Biden, who have never voted before? I’m sorry! The New York Times has to know what they are doing!”
WATCH:
Joe Scarborough melting down over NYT poll showing Trump up +11 in NV.
Joe accuses the NYT of bias towards Donald Trump , a claim even John Heilemann had to debate him on.I watch for the unintentional comedy but people actually watch MSNBC for news ? pic.twitter.com/CdUPzpKP4N
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) May 15, 2024
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.