‘Numbers are the numbers’: CNN host pushes back when commentator rejects polls showing Trump’s gains with black voters

CNN host Sara Sidner on Monday pushed back when political commentator Bakari Sellers dismissed polls suggesting former President Donald Trump will win a historically large portion of the black vote.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten during a previous Monday segment said Trump is “careening towards a historic performance” with black voters in the 2024 election as President Joe Biden hemorrhages a major segment of this demographic. Sidner, on “CNN News Central,” noted Enten’s reporting and asked Sellers what he makes of it, with the commentator attacking its accuracy and the host asserting these “are the numbers.”

‘Numbers Are The Numbers’: CNN Host Pushes Back When Commentator Rejects Polls Showing Trump’s Gains With Black Voters pic.twitter.com/MRiulyRygg

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“You just heard Harry Enten with shock and surprise on his face as he was looking at the numbers,” Sidner said. “And I want to go to you first, Bakari. What explains this? Biden 70%, Trump in 2024, 21% of voters, a very high number. And then when you look at 50 and under, the numbers are dramatically different for any Democratic president that we have ever seen. These numbers [are] very high for a Republican candidate. What explains that you think?”

“Poor polling. I mean, if you want to be honest about it. If Donald Trump gets those numbers, then I truly believe that I can sell Harry this bridge in Brooklyn,” Sellers said. “That’s just not happening. I think that people have to just level set a little bit, relax a little bit, stop hyperventilating. Donald Trump is not going to get 20% of the black vote. He’s simply not.”

The commentator added that as the election continues, Biden will win back more of these voters.

“I think that Harry and everyone else who are looking at these polls analyze this race incorrectly all the time. And the reason they analyze this race incorrectly is because Donald Trump isn’t the biggest threat to Joe Biden. The biggest threat to Joe Biden is black voters staying at home,” Sellers said. “Black voters aren’t going to all of a sudden under the age of 50 or however old they are, because he gets four or five unnamed rappers from Detroit or four or five unnamed rappers from the Bronx to support him. They’re not going to all of a sudden, you know, flock to Donald Trump.”

“But the numbers are the numbers, Bakari. I mean, are you saying you just don’t believe the polls? Or are you saying you don‘t think these polls will be representative of the population once voting begins in November?” Sidner asked, to which Sellers said “Both.”

Sidner on Monday told Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu that the majority of the “talking points” he recited against Trump are “definitely true,” which included that the former president “was asking people to drink Clorox” and that every time he opens his mouth, “he’s lying.”

Trump is presently beating Biden by 0.8% in a head-to-head matchup nationally, according to the RealClearPolling average. Enten on Monday also said Biden and Trump both perform worse with black voters when independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the ballot, but that Kennedy cuts into the current president’s lead more.

“I think what we’ve seen over the past eight years is pretty bad polling,” he added. “And then I think what you’ve seen consistently since that time is individuals have a very difficult time acknowledging that we’ve had that polling and then the polling continuously gets worse.”

“And so I think that‘s one of the issues that we have, but I mean the Biden campaign has, they do have issues with African-American voters in terms of getting them to turn out to vote. That is a fact … I was with Kamala Harris last week in Charlotte, North Carolina and one of the things she was trying to do is ensure that she got black voters to the polls, particularly younger black voters, so they are working towards that,” Sellers said.

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