|
Listen to article
|
Donald Trump has sued a pollster and newspaper over a pre-election survey that vastly underestimated his support, a move decried by rights groups as part of a larger anti-press effort by the US president-elect.
Trump’s lawsuit was filed Monday evening in the central US state of Iowa, naming the pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett as defendants.
The suit revolves around a poll conducted by Selzer that showed Trump trailing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by three points in the state.
Read Also: FBI Director Wray To Resign Before Trump’s Inauguration
The poll — published days before the November 5 election — was a shock given Trump’s easy victories there in 2016 and 2020, and boosted Democratic hopes that other surveys showing an exceedingly tight race were actually overestimating the Republican’s support.
Trump went on to win Iowa by 13 points, dealing a blow to Selzer’s reputation.
In his lawsuit, Trump accuses Selzer and co-defendants of “brazen election interference,” and seeks unspecified damages under Iowa’s “unfair practices” law.
The poll was “just a piece of political theater concocted by an individual — Selzer,” the suit alleges, saying she “should have known better than to poison the electorate with a poll that was nothing more than a work of fantasy.”
When contacted by AFP on Tuesday, Selzer’s office declined to comment.
Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the Des Moines Register, said the lawsuit was “without merit.”
The newspaper already acknowledged the poll “did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa,” Anton said.
She noted they had previously released weighted and unweighted data behind the poll, among other information, and that Selzer had published a “technical explanation.”
“We stand by our reporting on the matter,” Anton said.
