Prominent polling expert shuts down co-host who calls Trump supporters ‘cult’

Statistician Nate Silver pushed back against his podcast co-host Maria Konnikova’s description of President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters as a “cult” during an episode posted to YouTube on Thursday.

Trump secured his election victory Wednesday and had received nearly 73 million votes, or roughly 51% of the total, as of Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. When Konnikova remarked that Trump “loves his cult” on “Risky Business,” Silver noted the large number of Trump backers, eventually prompting her to rephrase and describe them as “con artist” victims instead.

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“Well, if it’s a cult, it’s a cult that currently, according to The New York Times, won the vote of 51% of the country,” Silver said.

“Yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s the way cults work,” Konnikova responded, laughing.

Silver disagreed, however.

“Well, but it’s not a cult. I mean, I think there’s something implicit in the definition of a cult that it’s a small, energized minority,” the statistician said.

“So, let’s go back and call it con artists and people who are in the thralls of a con artist as opposed to saying cult,” Konnikova responded. “What I’m trying to say is that when it’s basically a movement founded on one person and on people believing in the personality of that one person, and kind of not caring as much about a lot of other things as kind of the fact that this is a charismatic leader — And by the way, I’ve never met Trump, but I am willing to bet that he’s incredibly charismatic and he has some sort of kind of intuitive appeal if you spend time with him, because otherwise, this is very difficult to understand. I’m sure he has magnetic energy, and that’s kind of part of all of this.”

Silver also sparred with Konnikova in September over her characterization of Trump’s supporters as “victims” of his con artistry.

“For many people, it’s in their narrow self-interest to vote for Trump,” Silver told his co-host.

Moreover, Democratic strategist James Carville attacked Trump voters during a Thursday podcast, saying they “fell for this shit” in reference to their casting ballots for the president-elect.

“It’s not hard to say there’ve been plenty of criminals, charlatans, conmen, traitors, scumbags — we’ve had all of that before. But I don’t — we’ve never had remotely — and people embracing and endorsing this is — it’s just, it’s sickening,” Carville said. “But this guy got 50%, okay? They can make the argument Hitler never got 33. Okay, this is frightening that we would get here, and by the way, in 4% unemployment.”

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