CNN analyst and politics writer Harry Enten belittled his own network’s poll Monday, which showed President Donald Trump in a dead heat with former Vice President Joe Biden.
The poll, released Sunday evening, shows Trump closing the gap in swing states. It also has Biden with a four-point lead over Trump – the closest in over a year. This differs from most polls released throughout the summer giving Biden significant leads, although Trump and his campaign have alleged that they are inaccurate.
“We still have Biden up, you know, getting a large percentage of the vote – 50 to 46 – and that I think is something so important to point out, is that 50% number for Biden,” Enten said Monday on “CNN Newsroom” in response to the poll. (RELATED: Trump Says ‘George Washington Would Have Had A Hard Time Beating Him Before Coronavirus)
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His comments came after anchor Jim Sciutto pointed out that Sunday’s poll shows Biden’s lead narrowing. Sciutto said this is “a big change in CNN’s own polling in just a few weeks.”
“In fact, if you go back over time, what’s so key in all of our last few polls is that Biden is consistently at 50% or greater,” Enten said as he continued to downplay the network’s latest poll. “The other thing, obviously, we should note is there has been that tightening of the race since June, and that is largely consistent with what a lot of the other polling has generally showed, which is that there has been some slight tightening, though Biden still certainly ahead at this point.”
Enten said that CNN’s poll is not entirely unexpected, pointing to the fact that polls indicate “a range.” He pushed viewers to look at an average of polls rather than this specific Sunday poll. The average, according to Enten, shows that Biden is “up by nine points,” meaning he “does have the advantage.”
“Yeah, so you know, there have been a bunch of polls that have been released over the last week, and what’s so important to point out is there’s been a range in those results, right, and that’s what we should generally expect – a range,” Enten said.
He pointed to an ABC News poll released Monday morning that has Biden up by 12 points.
“There’s a margin of error and this kind of basically runs the gamut, right, of what you generally expect in say an eight or a nine-point race given the margin of error, and indeed if you look at the ‘CNN poll of polls,’ what you see is that Joe Biden at this particular point does have the advantage,” Enten said.
“He’s up by nine points, and that is very consistent with the range of polls that we’re generally showing at this point. Biden has a clear lead and is over 50% of the vote.”
Enten also noted that the “key nugget” is “voter enthusiasm,” which can be seen “very well” in the CNN poll.
“Fifty-three percent of voters say they’re extremely enthusiastic,” he said, pointing to CNN’s findings. “Jim, hat’s not just the highest this year, if you look at the trend line. It is the highest in any CNN poll at any point in the election cycle that I could actually find going back 15 years. This is huge.”
“This is indicating that, in my mind, there’s going to be a record turnout this time around.”