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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsExperts push back on Trump-touted poll that shows 50% of Americans calling Mueller probe a 'witch h
This is beyond MAGA and Trumps brain power!
Experts push back on Trump-touted poll that shows 50% of Americans calling Mueller probe a 'witch hunt'
President Donald Trump on Monday touts poll results that appeared to show more Americans than ever siding with his oft-repeated accusation that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe is nothing more than a "witch hunt."
But some polling experts take issue with the phrasing of the survey question, which may have skewed the results.
"President Trump has called the Special Counsel´s investigation a 'witch hunt' and said he´s been subjected to more investigations than previous presidents because of politics. Do you agree?" the survey asks.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/18/experts-push-back-on-poll-showing-50percent-call-mueller-probe-a-witch-hunt.html
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President Donald Trump on Monday touted poll results that appeared to show more Americans than ever siding with his oft-repeated accusation that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe is nothing more than a "witch hunt."
But some polling experts took issue with the phrasing of the survey question, saying it may have skewed the results.
"President Trump has called the Special Counsel´s investigation a 'witch hunt' and said he´s been subjected to more investigations than previous presidents because of politics. Do you agree?" the new USA Today/Suffolk University poll asked 1,000 registered voters in live telephone interviews between March 13 and 17.
The survey found that 50 percent of respondents said they agreed with the president's view of Mueller's probe of Russian election meddling and possible Trump campaign collusion in the 2016 presidential election.
Forty-seven percent disagreed, while 3 percent were undecided, according to the survey. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the total sample results.
Trump, who regularly decries the nearly 2-year-old Mueller probe as a politically motivated witch hunt, was quick to highlight the results of a survey that appeared to show the public on his side.
But multiple polling experts took exception to the structure of the question.
"I'm sorry to say this question violates three basic principles of questionnaire design," said Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates, which polls for ABC News and others.
Langer said in an email to CNBC that the question is "triple-barreled" because it asks three things within a single question: whether the probe is a witch hunt; whether Trump has been subjected to more investigations than other presidents; and whether those probes have been lodged because of politics.
"Answers to each can differ," Langer said.
He added that asking respondents if they agree without asking if they disagree makes the question "unbalanced." And agree-disagree questions in general are "fundamentally biasing, because they lack the alternative proposition," Langer said......................................
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Denzil_DC
(7,188 posts)It's designed to influence opinion rather than figure out what it is.
I doubt it's the only methodological problem. But at least it let Donny-boy chant "witch-hunt" yet again, so it served its purpose.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)some what. The polling results most likely fit the desired results of the Payee.
Denzil_DC
(7,188 posts)It's too blatant to pay any serious attention to.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)again.
That question is classic push-poll bullshit. The political equivalent of "Are you still beating your wife?"