“There was a perfectly good reason nobody saw [Trump’s victory] coming: because a three-point lead for Harris in deep-red Iowa was not reality,” Trump’s lawsuit alleges. “It was election-interfering fiction.”
President-elect Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register.
According to The Associated Press, Trump claims that the Register published a misleading survey shortly before the 2024 general election. The results of the Register’s survey showed the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, leading Trump by about 3%.
The Associated Press notes that the survey, conducted by since-retired pollster J. Ann Selzer, was considered “shocking” for showing Trump—who had been favored to win Iowa—suddenly trailing Harris.
However, after Election Day passed and ballots were counted, the former president wound up winning the state by a hefty 13%.
“There was a perfectly good reason nobody saw this coming: because a three-point lead for Harris in deep-red Iowa was not reality,” Trump’s lawsuit alleges. “It was election-interfering fiction.”
Attorneys for Trump say that the poll energized Democrats, convinced conservative activists to divert time and money to Iowa, and deceived the public about the potential outcome of the race.
“Defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit alleges. “Instead, the November 5 Election was a monumental victory for President Trump in both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote, an overwhelming mandate for his America First principles, and the consignment of the radical socialist agenda to the dustbin of history.”
In court filings, Trump said that he hopes his complaint will deter “radicals from continuing to act with corrupt intent in releasing polls manufactured for the purpose of skewing election results in favor of Democrats.”
Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the Des Moines Register, said that the newspaper has already acknowledged that its poll missed the mark in terms of the race’s actual outcome.
“We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe a lawsuit would be without merit,” said Anton, who emphasized that the Register has already released a technical explanation of its polling methodology and conclusion.
CNN notes that some legal experts have already condemned the lawsuit for posing an obvious threat to the freedom of the press.
“This absurd lawsuit is a direct assault on the First Amendment,” said Robert Corn-Revere, the chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Newspapers and polling firms are not engaged in ‘deceptive practices’ just because they publish stories and poll results President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t like. Getting a poll wrong is not election interference or fraud.”
Sources
Trump sues Des Moines Register and top pollster over final Iowa survey
Trump sues Des Moines Register, pollster for ‘election interference’ after pre-election poll
Trump Sues The Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media
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