Biden Pollster Commits Massive Self-Own, Admits to Poll-Herding on Twitter
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Earlier this week, you may have seen a Monmouth Poll that looked very different from other Democratic primary polls we’ve seen lately, in that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren led presumptive frontrunner Joe Biden:
NATIONAL POLL: Early #2020Dem preference:
20% @BernieSanders (? 6 pts from June)
20% @EWarren (? 5)
19% @JoeBiden (? 13)8% @KamalaHarris
4% @CoryBooker
4% @PeteButtigieg
3% @AndrewYang
2% @JulianCastro
2% @BetoORourke
2% @MarWilliamsonhttps://t.co/AQcJPs8d22— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) August 26, 2019
That created a big splash, not least among Biden supporters and establishment Democrats who really, really didn’t want to see those results. The backlash was so loud that Monmouth was forced to release a statement essentially saying “these things happen.”
Statement from poll director @PollsterPatrick
regarding this week’s poll: [date corrected] pic.twitter.com/Xelpw1pt9j— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) August 28, 2019
“In the end, we must put out the numbers we have,” Monmouth concluded, which is quite sensible. After all, you can’t skew the numbers, and you can’t simply throw out polls you don’t like…right?
Not so fast, says John Anzalone, a partner at ALG Polling, which has polled for Obama, Hillary Clinton, and—per his Twitter bio—Joe Biden. For Anzalone, the statement wasn’t good enough. This one’s screenshotted for the inevitable moment when he deletes it:
“When our firm comes out of the field and we believe we have an outlier we shit can the numbers and redo the poll at our expense. Period,” Anzalone said.