A triumphant Joe Scarborough celebrated a shocking poll from Iowa that found Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in the traditionally Republican party, calling him a “canary in the coal mine.”
The MSNBC host revealed he found himself in a media “dark zone” this weekend until his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski called him to reveal the news of pollster Ann Selzer’s outlier study showing Harris Trump in Iowa by three points.
“I’m like, what?” Scarborough exclaimed. ‘Then I’ll be on the phone for the rest of the night. John Heilemann… first of all, Ann gets it right every time. Just about every time.”
Scarborough enthusiastically backed Selzer’s poll, which was widely celebrated by Democrats as a sign that Harris is making progress on a wave of last-minute momentum.
The ex-president tore up the investigation, calling Selzer a “Trump hater” and insisting that Iowa farmers “love him.”
Joe Scarborough reflects on the latest Iowa polls
The Trump campaign pointed to an Emerson poll showing the Republican candidate with a comfortable 10-point lead in the deep-red state.
MSNBC analyst Heilemann called Selzer “very accurate.” She has built a reputation as “Iowa’s Polling Queen” and the “best pollster in politics.”
“She has been very accurate in the primaries and caucuses for years and years and years,” Heilemann agreed, noting that the poll showed Trump leading in the state in 2016.
“A lot of people said the same thing Saturday night: canary in the coal mine,” Scarborough said emphatically.
The poll showed Harris leading in the state of Iowa, which was still within the margin of error, with 47 percent to Trump’s 44 percent.
Polls show that Kamala Harris is beating Donald Trump in the state of Iowa
A new Des Moines Register poll shows women backing Kamala Harris
“The data shows that women, especially those who are older or registered as independent, are steering the late shift to Kamala Harris,” noted MSNBC co-host Willie Geist.
Scarborough featured Selzer on his show to discuss her numbers in detail.
“No one, including myself, thought Iowa could go for Kamala Harris,” she said.
Selzer said her Iowa poll showed Trump with a wide lead over Biden in the summer, but after Harris took the nomination she “leapfrogged” the former president thanks to motivated female supporters.
Scarborough celebrated the news as a huge boost for Harris, citing Selzer’s credibility.
‘Ann trusted the data. “She didn’t have to play with the numbers because she didn’t have to adjust to past failures,” he said.
Selzer emphasized that her data shows a huge gender gap between Trump and Harris.
‘Yes, you definitely see the gender gap here. Kamala Harris wins more with women than with men,” she said, adding that Harris outperformed women 65 and older. ‘Her margin is more than 2-1 in that group.’
Trump criticized the poll on Sunday evening as ‘lopsided’ on social media.
“All the polls, with the exception of the one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it completely wrong last time, have me WAY upbeat,” he wrote.