President-elect Donald Trump is suing Iowa pollster Ann Selzer over a poll published by the Des Moines Register just days before the 2024 election. The poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points in the historically Republican state.
The poll sent shockwaves through the media and impacted the betting markets. However, Trump won Iowa by over 13 percentage points, leaving the poll’s prediction off by 16.
Trump’s legal team argues that the poll was misleading and violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits deceptive advertising.
The lawsuit isn’t for defamation but accuses Selzer and The Des Moines Register of attempting to influence the election outcome.
Right-leaning Outlets
Media coverage of the lawsuit has been divided along political lines. Right-wing outlets have emphasized Trump’s claims of election interference.
Fox News: “Trump sues Des Moines Register, top pollster for ‘brazen election interference,’ fraud over Harris poll.”
Breitbart: “Trump to Sue Iowa Pollster Ann Selzer for ‘Election Interference’ After Wildly Inaccurate Poll.”
The Daily Wire: “‘Election-Interfering Fiction’: Trump Sues Iowa Pollster, Publisher For Poll Released November 2.”
Left-leaning Outlets
In contrast, left-leaning outlets frame the lawsuit as part of a broader effort by Trump to target the media.
CNN: “Emboldened by ABC settlement, Trump threatens more lawsuits against the press.”
The Daily Beast: “Trump Steps Up Revenge Tour on Media With New Threats to Sue.”
Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Apparently Thinks Bad Polling Is Illegal.”
Trump’s lawsuit has drawn mixed reactions from both sides of the political spectrum. Right-wing outlets largely focused on the poll’s inaccuracy and potential impact on the election.
The Daily Wire reported, “An egregiously wrong Des Moines Register poll by formerly well-respected pollster J. Ann Selzer published three days before the presidential election has catalyzed President-elect Donald Trump to say enough is enough — and sue them.”
Left-leaning media highlight the lawsuit as part of a larger conflict with the media.
CNN reported, “Trump is expanding his threats of legal action against the news media as he prepares to move back into the White House, stating he wants to ‘straighten out the press.’ On Monday, Trump said he has a new target: The Des Moines Register newspaper.”
There’s another difference between left and right media reporting on the lawsuit. Some left-leaning news outlets didn’t cite the lawsuit in their reporting. However, right-leaning news outlets didn’t cite other ongoing legal battles Trump has with media members.
The Daily Beast, a news outlet with a left political bias, reported, “The suit against Selzer and the Register…would be another in Trump’s long list of lawsuits against journalists and the media. He currently has a lawsuit pending against CBS’ 60 Minutes, which he claims favorably edited Harris’ answers. Trump is also suing famed journalist Bob Woodward for allegedly misquoting him and selling interview tapes for his book ‘The Trump Tapes,’ as well as the Pulitzer committee for giving an award to journalists reporting on Russian election interference in 2016.”
Fox News, a news outlet with a right political bias, reported, “The Harris Poll was no ‘miss’ but rather an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit states, adding that “defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.”
Selzer and The Des Moines Register responded to questions about legal action taken against them.
“We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll’s full demographics, cross tabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer,” Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the newspaper, said. We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe a lawsuit would be without merit.”
“The idea that I intentionally set up to deliver this response, when I’ve never done that before—I’ve had plenty of opportunity to do it,” Ann Selzer said. “It’s not my ethic. But to suggest without a single shred of evidence that I was in cahoots with somebody, that I was being paid by somebody, it’s hard to pay too much attention to it except that they are accusing me of a crime.”
As the case progresses, the media continues to cover the story from different angles. This coverage reflects the broader divide in how the issue is framed.
In conclusion, while the poll was widely regarded as inaccurate, Trump believes it was an attempt at election interference. Meanwhile, Selzer and The Des Moines Register maintain that they did nothing wrong.
The lawsuit has sparked heated debate, with right-leaning media focusing on the flaws in the poll and left-leaning outlets characterizing the legal action as part of Trump’s broader campaign against the press.
