White House chief of staff Ron Klain is getting called out for claiming that “78% of voters approved of @POTUS #SOTU, and a strong majority believe that the President’s agenda to attack inflation will work!”:
Per @CBSNews poll, 78% of voters approved of @POTUS #SOTU, and a strong majority believe that the President's agenda to attack inflation will work! pic.twitter.com/WJXW2QmwzH
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) March 2, 2022
What Klain left out is that the CBS poll is not of “voters” but of people who watched the speech, and that’s a huge difference:
This is speech watchers, not voters, Ron.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 2, 2022
CBS News added this caveat on its write-up of the poll:
“As we’ve seen with previous presidents’ State of the Union speeches, those who watched tonight are more likely to be from the president’s own political party, boosting approval of the speech.”
And here’s the tweet about it. See? Nothing about “voters” here:
Most Americans who watched President Biden's first State of the Union address approved of what they heard, and many said it made them feel optimistic and proud. https://t.co/5J32ZGrwTc
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 2, 2022
And CBS News is making it clear that it’s not voters:
*CBS News Poll of Speech Watchers*
More than six in 10 who said Biden’s policies will help lower inflation, up from 48% who felt that way before the speech. pic.twitter.com/kugN7cTt82— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) March 2, 2022
Pollster Frank Luntz called out Klain, tweeting “ You know this poll was only among #SOTU speech watchers, who tend to overwhelmingly be from the president’s own party” and “Trump’s final SOTU had a 76% positive reaction among watchers”:
Ronald, c’mon.
You know this poll was only among #SOTU speech watchers, who tend to overwhelmingly be from the president’s own party.
For instance, Trump’s final SOTU had a 76% positive reaction among watchers: https://t.co/E35AILofKv https://t.co/lWFsRGGUCD
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 2, 2022
Klain was also corrected by Kabir Khana, a data journalist with CBS News on the network’s Decision Desk/Election & Survey Unit:
“Looks like someone choosing fiction over science… We conducted a poll of self-reported speech watchers across the country, not voters.”
Khanna added that it was a partisan audience, as well:
“So no, 78% of U.S. voters didn’t approve 78% approved *among people who tuned in tonight* It was a partisan audience as usual: 49% Democrats.”
Looks like someone choosing fiction over science…
We conducted a poll of self-reported speech watchers across the country, not voters
So no, 78% of U.S. voters didn't approve
78% approved *among people who tuned in tonight*
It was a partisan audience as usual: 49% Democrats https://t.co/zpvOFvhfIE
— Kabir Khanna (@kabir_here) March 2, 2022
We’re getting some major Baghdad Bob vibes from the White House:
https://t.co/eMJ1uZbHHU pic.twitter.com/u5INQTIdUe
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) March 2, 2022
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member