Once again, there's evidence suggesting traditional polls aren't accurately measuring support for the president and his policies.
Just how popular is Donald Trump? Two weeks into the new president’s term, it’s a matter of some dispute.
Traditional phone polls that use live interviewers — including some of the most trusted polls in politics and media — report limited support for Trump and the controversial executive orders he’s signed. But automated phone and Internet-based surveys tell a different story. Once the element of anonymity is added, the president’s approval ratings suddenly look a lot better.
It’s reigniting the campaign debate over whether pollsters are accurately measuring Trump’s popularity — or the breadth of support for his policies. The White House is already seizing on the issue, and forcefully pushing back against the early narrative that the president is suffering from historically bad polling numbers.
At Friday’s White House press briefing, when asked to comment on a newly-released CBS News poll — conducted by live interviewers — which put Trump’s approval rating at only 40 percent, press secretary Sean Spicer was ready with an alternate data point.
“I think there’s also a Rasmussen poll that showed he had a 51-percent approval rating,” Spicer replied sharply....
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
