A CNN guest on Wednesday night dismissed polls showing former President Donald Trump drawing increased support from black voters, claiming some were “paid” to back the former president.
Trump, who garnered 12% support from black voters in 2020 according to a CNN exit poll, exceeds that level of support in recent general election polls by CBS, which shows the former president getting 17%, and Fox News, which has 26%. Commentator Angela Rye claimed that pollsters were talking to “imaginary black folks” when asked about polling by CNN guest host Pamela Brown.
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“I don’t make anything of these polls that are talking to imaginary black folks. I would love to know, for one, who they’re talking to, because I’ve not seen them anywhere,” Rye claimed.
The Fox News poll, released Aug. 14, was conducted Aug. 9-12 with a 3% margin of error, while the CBS poll, released Aug. 18, was taken from Aug. 14 to 16 and has a 2.1% margin of error.
“I think that they are, you know what, they might be the invisible man that Ralph Ellison talked about in his book,” Rye continued. “I don’t know who these people are. There was a Trump ad that was released, I believe today, that’s targeting black women voters. And there are these people who allegedly exist all throughout the country, and they’re reading scripts. You can see their eye-line going over here. And I think some of them might be paid to say some of these things. I’m not sure.”
Black men in Georgia expressed support for Trump, citing economic policy and his personality in a recent Sky News segment. Other voters told The New York Times in July they were sick of “pandering” from Democrats, calling it “insulting.”
Black voters outside the Democratic National Committee also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she “doesn’t give a fuck” about them.
“I’m not giving any credit to these polls. Polls end up being wrong all the time and I’ve seen polls that say 15%, 19%, 18% of black folks,” Rye said. “I don’t believe it at all. I really don’t.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.