FiveThirtyEight pollster Nate Silver urged The Associated Press and Fox News to retract their early call awarding highly contested Arizona to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, as President Donald Trump narrows the former vice president’s lead in the state amid ongoing vote counting.
“I don’t know, I guess I’d say that Biden will win Arizona if you forced me to pick, but I sure as heck don’t think the state should have been called by anyone, and I think the calls that were previously made should be retracted now,” he wrote on the FiveThirtyEight live blog around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Silver ‘signed off’ on the blog a couple of hours later, pledging to “come back” online when there is breaking news.
Fox News was the first major media outlet to call Arizona for Biden, a decision that was highly criticized at the time and since, including by some of the network’s own personalities and correspondents.
Arnon Miskin, who heads up the network’s Decision Desk, continued to defend the early call Thursday, saying “we strongly believe that our call will stand, and that’s why we’re not pulling back the call.”
The AP also defended its early call in an explainer published Thursday:
The AP called the race at 2:50 a.m. EST Wednesday, after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded there were not enough outstanding to allow Trump to catch up.
With 80% of the expected vote counted, Biden was ahead by 5 percentage points, with a roughly 130,000-vote lead over Trump with about 2.6 million ballots counted. The remaining ballots left to be counted, including mail-in votes in Maricopa County, where Biden performed strongly, were not enough for Trump to catch up to the former vice president.
The Times also called the race in Arizona for Biden on Election Night, but by Wednesday morning the paper had taken the state out of Biden’s ‘win’ column. As of Thursday morning, the state remained ‘undecided.’
And according to The New York Times live presidential election blog Thursday morning, correspondent Jennifer Medina in Phoenix indicated that the state is still in play.
She noted that “Trump hit the percentage he needed to stay on track to potentially win Arizona, but it may not hold. The next Maricopa release is not expected until Thursday night.”
Also, in a segment Wednesday night, CNN host Chris Cuomo and guests noted that, based on current trend lines, the president is on track to overtake Biden’s lead win the state.
The latest batch of votes in Arizona have been tallied from Maricopa county, and CNN admits Trump is tracking to win the state. pic.twitter.com/aeCucDOLW8
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) November 5, 2020
Also, a similar analysis during MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s program Wednesday evening indicated that the president is tracking to overtake Biden — so much so, in fact, that the analysis elicited a response from Maddow.
“Oh, god,” she said as her guest explained incoming vote tallies showing Trump getting with 59 percent or more of the totals.
In addition, the president’s own campaign has said they expect Trump to eke out a win in Arizona by some 30,000 votes.
BREAKING:
Sources are calling for a TRUMP win THIRTY THOUSAND votes above Biden in Arizona.
RETWEET SO EVERYONE KNOWS. IT AINT OVER!!!
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) November 5, 2020
Nevertheless, what is apparent is that Arizona has clearly become a ‘purple’ state.
With Mark Kelly overtaking incumbent GOP Sen. Martha McSally, he will join Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in Washington, giving Arizona two Democrat senators for the first time in decades.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Jon@bizpacreview.com
Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
- Jan. 6 committee chair Benny Thompson offers a stunning take on potential Trump criminal actions - January 2, 2022
- Life-long New Yorker posts ‘sad’ Twitter ode on post-pandemic Big Apple being ‘shadow of its former self’ - January 2, 2022
- NYPD officer shot in head in police lot as he slept in vehicle between shifts - January 2, 2022
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
