In a since-deleted video, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign manager admitted that “we are not ahead by double digits,” The Epoch Times reported.
Some polls from October show Biden with an 11- or 12- point national lead ahead of President Donald Trump, and the average has him 8.9 points ahead.
“Those are inflated national public polling numbers,” Jen O’Malley Dillon reportedly said on Oct. 16 at a campaign event.
Shane Goldmacher, a New York Times national political reporter, tweeted her comments with a screenshot before the video was deleted.
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, in grassroots summit, emphasizes that their polling does NOT show a double-digit lead nationally.
“Please take the fact that we are not ahead by double digits”
“Those are inflated national public polling numbers” pic.twitter.com/v95za3XRGZ
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 16, 2020
The Biden campaign has not disputed Dillon’s comments.
Dillon made similar comments in a three-page campaign memo that she sent to supporters on Oct. 17, Fox News reported.
“The reality is that this race is far closer than some of the punditry we’re seeing on Twitter and on TV would suggest,” she wrote.
She even suggested that the Trump’s base may turn out in higher numbers than Biden, skewing results toward Trump.
“Even the best polling can be wrong and that variables like turnout mean that in a number of critical swing states we are fundamentally tied,” Dillon wrote.
Most polling companies factor a Democratic advantage into their polls, sometimes assuming as much as a Democrat turnout of +8 compared to Republicans.
Using this model, pollsters will interview 39-41 percent Democrats and only 23-25 percent Republicans.
But she said Biden’s supporters must work “like we are trailing.”
“If we learned anything from 2016, it’s that we cannot underestimate Donald Trump or his ability to claw his way back into contention in the final days of a campaign, through whatever smears or underhanded tactics he has at his disposal,” Dillon wrote.
