CNN Host Pushes Back As Commentator Rejects Polls Showing Trump Gains With Black Voters

CNN host Sara Sidner pushed back Monday as political commentator Bakari Sellers dismissed polls suggesting former President Donald Trump will win a historically significant share of the black vote.

CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten during an earlier segment Monday said Trump is “heading for a historic performance” with black voters in the 2024 election as President Joe Biden hemorrhages a significant segment of that demographic. Sidner, on “CNN News Central,” pointed to Enten's report and asked Sellers what he thought, with the commentator attacking its accuracy and the host saying those “are the numbers.”

'The numbers are the numbers': CNN host pushes back as commentator dismisses polls showing Trump gains with black voters pic.twitter.com/MRiulyRygg

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

“Poor polls. I mean, if you want to be honest about it. If Donald Trump gets those numbers, I really think I can sell that bridge to Harry in Brooklyn,” Sellers said. “That's just not happening. I think people just need to level up a little bit, relax a little bit, stop hyperventilating. Donald Trump is not going to get 20% of the black vote. He's just not.”

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

“I think Harry and everyone else who is looking at these polls is analyzing this race incorrectly all the time. And the reason they are analyzing this race incorrectly is because Donald Trump is not the biggest threat to Joe Biden. The biggest threat to to Joe Biden is for black voters to stay home,” Sellers said. “Black voters aren't going to suddenly be under 50 or whatever age they are because he's got four or five no-name rappers from Detroit or four or five no-name rappers from the Bronx to support him. They're not going to suddenly go you know, to look for Donald Trump.

“But the numbers are the numbers, Bakari. I mean, are you saying you don't believe the polls? Or are you saying you don't think those polls will be representative of the population once the polls start in November?” Sidner asked, at the to which Sellers said “Both”.

Sydney on Monday he said Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu says most of the “talking points” he recited against Trump are “definitely true,” including that the former president “was asking people to drink Clorox” and that every time he opens his mouth, “he is lying”.

Trump is currently leading Biden by 0.8% in a national head-to-head matchup, seconds to the RealClearPolling average. Enten also said Monday that Biden and Trump perform worse with black voters when they are independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the ballot, but that Kennedy further cuts the current president's lead.

“I think what we've seen over the last eight years is pretty bad polling,” he added. “And then I think what you've seen consistently since that time is that individuals have a hard time acknowledging that we've had that poll and then the polls just keep getting worse.”

“And so I think that's one of the problems that we have, but I mean the Biden campaign is having trouble with African-American voters in terms of getting them to come out and vote. That's a fact… I was with Kamala Harris last week in Charlotte, North Carolina and one of the things she was trying to do is make sure she got black voters, especially younger black voters, so they're working on that,” Sellers said .

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