September 11, 2019: On This Anniversary, Trump Focuses on Real Pain - Caused by Polls

 

Trump is incapable of admitting error or accepting fault.

9/11/19: It is a day for solemn memories – of Twin Towers imploding – of a Pentagon in flames – of heroism on Flight 93 – and so much more. It’s a time for reflection and introspection. Unless you are Donald J. Trump.

 

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It has never bothered Donald Trump that the 2018 election in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District was definitely rigged.

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The president is up early on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. By 5:14 a.m. he’s tweeting. China is “being hit very hard” by tariffs! Trump is winning! He attacks Jay Powell, his choice to lead the Federal Reserve, and calls him naïve. But what really has the president riled up are a series of recent opinion polls. Those polls show that if the election were held today, he and the Republicans would get smoked. 

First, the “good news,” as far as Trump is concerned. The Republicans did eke out a narrow win in a special election in the Ninth Congressional District in North Carolina the night before. This allows the president to boast, because, as he insists, he saved the day himself.

 

For those who prefer facts, it pays to check his math. He didn’t save the day, so much as the blood of a bleeding patient clotted. That’s what blood does. The Ninth has long been a GOP bastion. In 2016, the GOP candidate for Congress won by 16 points, 58 to 42 percent. Trump carried the district by 12 points. In 2018 the Republican congressional candidate won again, but by less than a point. Even that narrow victory was a result of rank ballot fraud perpetrated by the “winner’s” campaign. The results were tossed by the courts. 

Oddly enough, while Trump often complains about “rigged” votes, without any evidence votes were rigged, it has never bothered him that the 2018 election in the Ninth was definitely rigged. 

So, on Tuesday, Trump wanted everyone to believe he had pulled a little magic out of a red MAGA hat. He rallied hard for Dan Bishop, the new GOP candidate in the race. (The old candidate was facing felony charges.) And, with the weight of the presidency thrown into the balance, Bishop did defeat his opponent by a whopping two points, 50.7 to 48.7 percent.

 

Still, the president, could not resist the itch to bitch. It took three tweets to get the hurt off his chest. What he wanted all Americans to know was that he was winning, and winning, and the polls couldn’t be right. 

First angry tweet: 

In a hypothetical poll, done by one of the worst pollsters of them all, the Amazon Washington Post/ABC, which predicted I would lose to Crooked Hillary by 15 points (how did that work out?), Sleepy Joe, Pocahontas and virtually all others would beat me in the General Election.... 

 

Trump was lying again. 

I checked Trump’s math. No poll done by the Washington Post and ABC ever had him down 15 points in 2016. In fact, on the eve of the election, the same poll had him down only 3. (He lost the popular vote by 2.) 

Second angry tweet: 

....This is a phony suppression poll, meant to build up their Democrat partners. I haven’t even started campaigning yet, and am constantly fighting Fake News like Russia, Russia, Russia. Look at North Carolina last night. Dan Bishop, down big in the Polls, WINS. Easier than 2016!

 

First, Mr. President, stop attacking the free press. Second, for god’s sake, check your facts! Bishop’s win was in no way “easier” than the Republican win in 2016, as already mentioned. For that matter, polls in North Carolina had never shown Bishop “down big.” Three polls showed the election was likely a dead heat. Bishop was expected to garner 44.67 percent of the vote, Dan McCready, his opponent, 44.33 percent. Another 8 percent of voters were unsure. 

Third angry tweet: “If it weren’t for the never ending Fake News about me,” he sobbed (if you can sob in a tweet), “and with all that I have done (more than any other President in the first 2 1/2 years!), I would be leading the ‘Partners’ of the LameStream Media by 20 points. Sorry, but true!” 

It was clear, then, that the president was having a rotten day. Even trashing John Bolton, his ousted National Security Advisor, during a question and answer session with reporters, did not assuage the hurt in his heart. 

The polls painted a painful picture for Trump and his party. Even Rasmussen, his favorite poll, showed him with an approval rating of only 47 percent, and a disapproval rating of 53 percent. 

And that was the best poll of all. 

In an average of all polls, Trump had an approval rating of 43.1 percent, and a disapproval rating of 53.9 percent.

 

 

POSTSCRIPT: To be fair, Trump has time to recover. He could look to his nemesis’ success in 2012. On September 11, 2011, President Obama had an approval rating of 43.3 percent, and a disapproval rating of 50.7 percent. 

The difference? Obama didn’t believe the polls were rigged and didn’t whine as if they were.

This guy never once claimed the polls were phony or rigged.