Dana Perino: The Polls Are Not Rigged Against Donald Trump
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino called on supporters of Donald Trump to accept the realization that he is currently trailing Hillary Clinton significantly in the this year's presidential election and that polling data tracking the race is accurate.
Perino, in an interview with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said the 2012 presidential election should serve as a wakeup call to anyone doubting polling data this time around.
"A lot of very smart people got sucked into thinking that the polls were rigged and skewed and that Romney really was in a much better position than Obama. We had this false sense of complacency, yeah, no one in their right mind would ever re-elect President Obama. Right before the election, I think on Friday night, Bob Beckel said to me, Dana, these polls are accurate. Romney is going to lose. I went home with a strange feeling in my stomach, I remember. I was, kind of, mad at Bob for saying so, but I had a feeling he was right. Election night happens. Romney got creamed by Obama and I've made a vow to myself: I will never again allow people that listen to me or viewers that have a chance to see me on Fox or follow me on social media, I will never lie to them about these election results."
She believes that unless the Trump and fellow Republicans can make a course correction very soon, election night will bring a staggering defeat.
"A lot of people, during this campaign, have been frustrated with me. People that support Trump say why can't you be more positive? I'm just trying to be very realistic with them. The numbers are very bad for the Republican party right now. That doesn't mean they can't change in the next 11 weeks, but that's not a lot of time to turn things around."
Perino stated that Trump's advocates do themselves no favors by choosing to ignore the current state of the race.
"There's this false notion that is being trumpeted by the Trump campaign and his supporters that the polls are wrong and that the evidence of that is that the enthusiasm at his rallies is so great and that the turnout at his rallies is so great. Even if you did get 12,000 people at a rally, you need 65 million votes to even hope to win. Hillary Clinton starts at 242 Electoral Votes. You only need 270 to win the Electoral College. I can do that math and he is down in every battleground state."
