Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) didn’t seem keen to put much weight on poll numbers showing Donald Trump’s declining approval rating during an appearance on Fox News this Sunday.
The Republican vice presidential nominee denied those numbers during a conversation with Shannon Bream, telling the “Fox News Sunday” host that the polls are being used as a ploy to discourage Republicans from voting in November.
“What we’ve seen in 2016 and 2020 has always been the media using fake polls to lower Republican turnout and to sow discord and conflict with Republican voters,” he said.
“My message to anybody watching this is that the Trump campaign is in a very good place,” Vance added. “We’re going to win this election. We just need to get across the finish line.”
Confronted with the new numbers from the New York Times/Siena poll, the senator said the survey “tends to grossly over-represent Democrats.”
Vance argued that the surge in support for Vice President Kamala Harris was due to a “sugar high” and told Bream that internal Trump campaign polling showed enthusiasm was “calming down.”
“If you talk to people in the Kamala Harris campaign, they’re very worried about their position because the American people don’t believe that Kamala Harris, who has been vice president for three and a half years, is going to tackle the inflation crisis tomorrow in a way that she hasn’t done for the last 1,300 days,” he said.
Bream then presented the Republican vice presidential nominee with “new numbers” from a Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed Harris holding a 4-5 point lead nationally.
She pressed Vance, saying, “If you think momentum is holding up or internal polling is showing a different outcome, every other poll that’s been released so far shows significant momentum in her favor.”
The senator refused to budge, saying Ms Harris’ approval rating was “stagnant” and criticising the Washington Post/ABC News polls as “grossly inaccurate” ahead of Mr Trump’s crushing defeat to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
“We can’t worry about the polls,” Vance said, “we have to run across the finish line and encourage people to go vote.”
“But our message is very simple: If you want peace and prosperity back and more take-home pay, Donald Trump did it once and he can do it again,” he added.
Watch Vance’s full interview here, with his comments about the polls at the 4:10 mark.
