Veteran pollster Charlie Cook explained during Lawrence O'Donnell's "Last Word" Wednesday that the CNN poll that President Donald Trump threatened to sue the network over could actually be accurate if polls for the last week are any indication.
Mocking the threat of litigation in Cook's introduction, O'Donnell joked that Trump's campaign "actually paid a lawyer" to put the threat in writing.
"Don't mention the CNN poll where Trump is losing by 14 points because you might get a lawyer's letter if you make any reference to it at all," said O'Donnell with a smirk.
The "Cook Political Report" chief began by saying that he's covered politics for 36 years and never seen it happen before. That said, the poll might not be too far off.
"The thing is, if you take the live interview, real people calling real people the average is about 10," Cook began his explanation of Trump's loss to former Vice President Joe Biden. "NBC/Wall Street Journal and ABC/Washington Post had it at 7. CNN had it 14. Quinnipiac and Marist had it at 11. Basically 10 is the average of the real polls."
He went on to say that regardless there is also a margin of error of about 3 percent.
"He has clearly slipped several points, three or four points in the last few weeks and the thing is that CNN poll was actually taken after all the other polls were so it could be absolutely dead-on," said Cook. "But look at the state polling. The Real Clear Politics Averages. He is behind in five of the six key states. Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and tied in North Carolina. Clearly there has been slippage. How much you could argue about."
O'Donnell also noted that a new Gallup poll was released this week showing Trump's approval rating dropped to 39 percent. It's a ten-point drop in just one month.
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