President-elect Donald Trump slammed retiring election pollster J. Ann Selzer and called for an investigation after her last pre-Election Day survey showed Vice President Kamala Harris topping the Republican in Iowa – a state he ultimately won.
Trump slammed Selzer and the now-ridiculed Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll hours after she announced she was calling it quits from election polling.
Her last poll indicated Trump would lose to Harris by as much as three points in Iowa, but the future 47th president ended up winning the red state by a whopping 13 points on the way to recapturing the presidency.
“A totally Fake poll that caused great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time. She knew exactly what she was doing,” he wrote Sunday evening on Truth Social
“Thank you to the GREAT PEOPLE OF IOWA for giving me such a record breaking vote, despite possible ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited ‘newspaper’ for which she works.
“An investigation is fully called for!”
It’s unclear what type of probe Trump meant.
When asked by USA Today if Trump implied a criminal investigation, a spokesperson for the incoming commander in chief said. “President Trump was very clear in his Truth Social post.”
Steven Cheung, the incoming communications director under Trump, also claimed Selzer “beclowned herself during the last days of the campaign in a seemingly blatant attempt to misinform the public for the benefit of Kamala Harris.”
The Post has sought comment from Trump’s camp.
Selzer said her exit was in the works for more than a year and she planned on moving on to “other ventures and opportunities” earlier Sunday in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register.
“Would I have liked to make this announcement after a final poll aligned with Election Day results? Of course,” she said of the erroneous Nov. 1 poll. “It’s ironic that it’s just the opposite.”
In a post-mortem of the under-fire poll, she said she found “nothing to illuminate the miss,” but guessed respondents might have lied or changed their opinion after the poll was conducted.
“My integrity means a lot to me,” she wrote. “To those who have questioned it, there are likely no words to dissuade.”
Des Moines Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter added in a separate note to readers, “To date, no likely single culprit has emerged to explain the wide disparity.”
Selzer’s polling showing Harris winning the state was featured on the newspaper’s front page, boosting enthusiasm among Democrats who believed the veep was in a good position to top Trump.
Selzer leads polling and public affairs firm Selzer & Co. and has been conducting the Des Moines Register’s Iowa poll for nearly 40 years.