President-elect Donald Trump is set to initiate legal action against well-known Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the CBS news show “60 Minutes."
During a recent press conference, Trump declared his intention to sue both parties, accusing them of distorting facts related to the recent election, Breitbart reported.
Trump's complaint against Ann Selzer arises from a discrepancy between her final pre-election polls and the actual election results. Selzer, who retired following the election, had incorrectly forecasted that Trump would lose Iowa by a few points. However, he won the state by a significantly larger margin.
This misprediction was not the only issue raised by Trump. He expressed concerns about Selzer's intentions during the press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
He suggested that Selzer deliberately manipulated the polling data before the election to make it appear that his lead was less secure, affecting public perception.
Trump accused Selzer of committing fraud and interfering in the election. He previously lauded her accuracy in polls but changed his stance following the unexpected predictions she made before the polls closed.
Addressing the situation, Selzer admitted her uncertainty about the cause of the polling error and said it was still under investigation. "I'm not here to break any news. If you were hoping that I had landed on exactly why things went wrong, I have not... But we’ve explored everything... We don't know. Do I wish I knew? Yes, I wish I knew."
Meanwhile, Trump also announced a separate lawsuit against "60 Minutes," claiming the show edited an interview with Kamala Harris in a way that misrepresented her answers. The program acknowledged the editing but has yet to release the full transcript to the public.
Trump detailed his grievances during the Monday conference, asserting that both actions constituted deliberate attempts to influence the election outcome unfavorably towards him.
Speaking about the interview with Harris, Trump said, "We’re filing one on 60 Minutes. You know about that, where they took Kamala’s answer, which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer, and they took the whole answer out and they replaced it with something else she said later on."
Facing these allegations, both Selzer and "60 Minutes" are under public scrutiny. The Des Moines Register has made Selzer's polling methodologies and results available for public review to maintain transparency.
This situation highlights significant trust issues within media and polling processes, especially in times of critical electoral activities. Trump's assertion and subsequent actions could mark a significant point in public discourse regarding the integrity of media and polling organizations.
Ultimately, the unfolding legal battles between Trump, Ann Selzer, and "60 Minutes" may set precedents for how the public perceives and regulates pollsters and media outlets concerning electoral processes. Whether these lawsuits will lead to legal consequences or change polling practices remains to be seen.
