Surprise: Trump Falls Behind Cruz in National NBC/WSJ Poll

Surprise: Trump Falls Behind Cruz in National NBC/WSJ Poll

by Mark Murray

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has fallen behind Ted Cruz in the national GOP horserace, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

In the poll, Cruz is the first choice of 28 percent of Republican primary voters, while Trump gets 26 percent. They're followed by Marco Rubio at 17 percent, John Kasich at 11 percent, Ben Carson at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 4 percent.
NBC News

The results from the poll — conducted after Trump's victory in New Hampshire and Saturday's GOP debate in South Carolina — are a significant reversal from last month, when Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz, 33 percent to 20 percent.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his firm Hart Research Associates, says Trump's drop could signal being "right on top of a shift in the campaign."

"When you see a number this different, it means you might be right on top of a shift in the campaign. What you don't know yet is if the change is going to take place or if it is a momentary 'pause' before the numbers snap back into place," he said.

McInturff added, "So, one poll post-Saturday debate can only reflect there may have been a 'pause' as Republican voters take another look at Trump. This happened earlier this summer and he bounced back stronger. We will have to wait this time and see what voters decide."

This poll comes after other surveys -- both nationally and in South Carolina, the site of Saturday's next Republican contest -- show Trump with a commanding lead. But some of those weren't conducted entirely after the last debate like the NBC/WSJ poll.

Another possible explanation for Trump's decline in the new NBC/WSJ poll is an increase in "very conservative" Republican voters from January's sample.

If the current poll is re-weighted to reflect the ideological composition from last month, the GOP horserace numbers are: Trump 26 percent, Cruz 25 percent, Rubio 18 percent and Kasich 13 percent — so Trump is ahead by one point, but still down from January.

In addition to Trump's decline in the GOP race, the new NBC/WSJ poll shows a nine-point drop in the percentage of GOP primary voters who can see themselves supporting the real-estate mogul — from 65 percent in January to 56 percent now.

The highest candidate scores on this scale: Rubio (70 percent can see themselves supporting him), Cruz (65 percent), Carson (62 percent), Trump (56 percent), Kasich (49 percent) and Bush (46 percent).

And in hypothetical one-on-one match ups, Trump trails both Cruz (56 percent to 40 percent) and Rubio (57 percent to 41 percent). In January, Trump was ahead of Rubio (by seven points) but behind Cruz (by eight points).

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Feb. 14-16 of 800 registered voters (which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.5 percentage points) and 400 GOP primary voters (which has a margin of error of plus-minus 4.9 percentage points).

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-pres...j-poll-n520296

Its a BS "agenda poll" conjured up by (amnesty donor for Rubio) Murdoch, who owns WSJ. Only 400 queried. link below

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/...-agenda-polls/

Others say opposite: Morning Consult 41/12/14, USA Today/Suffolk 35/20/17, Quinnipiac 39/18/19, NBC/Survey Monkey 38/18/14, Ipsos/Reuters 35/23/14

NBC WSJ ='s Bull Crapy Liars that Back Amnesty for illegal aliens ='s ZERO trust for anything they say or release.

W

AOL is the most lib agenda out there and look at the comments even there;

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/1...mment-26954435

I think there's been one or two of these weird outlier or whatever you want to call it, anomaly polls before. It may be that it is some kind of horse play by Murdoch and the WSJ to try to screw up the SC Primary. Wouldn't surprise me. When the pollster was on the news today trying to explain it he was giving all types of excuses like there were more conservatives than other polls and it was after the debate and maybe people were taking a "pause". But several of the polls were taken fully after the debate, so who knows. I hope it's wrong.

I don't really care what order they're in as long as Cruz and Trump hold the #1 & #2 spot. However, I am a little concerned at where Rubio is.

by ALEX SWOYER
18 Feb 2016
Columbia, SC
3,054 comments

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump joined Breitbart News Daily with host Stephen K. Bannon on SiriusXM and responded to the recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that shows him slipping to second place nationwide, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)taking first.

“You know Wall Street Journal – Rupert Murdoch hit,” Trump responded to Bannon’s question about the poll. “In my opinion, it was a fix.”

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

“Something’s wrong because every single poll that has come out nationally and locally we’re doing fantastically well,” the real estate mogul added.

Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino also took to Twitter to question the poll:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cbf-qilUkAQV01O.jpg
Dan Scavino ✔ @DanScavino
10 RECENT NATIONAL POLLS
Which one is affiliated with a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch? #TrumpTrain #Trump2016��
5:18 AM - 18 Feb 2016


“They treat me very badly. It’s obviously not having very much of an impact,” Trump said of Fox News, adding that the WSJ poll is “phony.”

“People at NBC News were embarrassed by it,” Trump told Bannon about the poll. “The worst treatment I get is from Fox.”

Trump said Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer appear on Fox News and are always bashing him.

When asked about his “friend” Roger Ailes, who is the Chairman and CEO of Fox News, Trump said, “He won’t lift his finger to help me.”

“They’re in love with Rubio – why I have no idea,” Trump added. He said after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s (R-FL) poor debate in New Hampshire, “[Fox News] protected him.”

Trump also called Fox News’ debate moderator Megyn Kelly biased.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...t-murdoch-hit/

Thursday, February 18, 2016 04:59 PM
By: Greg Richter

Rupert Murdoch says it's time for Donald Trump to "calm down" over allegations that the News Corporation head is rigging presidential polls to make Trump look bad.

Murdoch tweeted on Thursday that if he really was running an anti-Trump conspiracy he's doing a "lousy job," considering Trump's continued success on his quest for the GOP nomination.

Rupert Murdoch ✔ @rupertmurdoch
Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!
12:19 PM - 18 Feb 2016

Murdoch's comments come after a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Wednesday showed Trump now trailing two points nationally to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. All other recent polls still show Trump with a double-digit lead over Cruz, his closest competitor.

Murdoch's News Corporation owns The Wall Street Journal, as well as Fox News Channel, with which Trump also has been sparring since a tiff with Megyn Kelly during the first presidential debate in August.

Dan Scavino, Trump's social media director, noted the differences in the WSJ poll and others in a tweet of his own on Thursday.

Trump called the poll a "total joke" on Thursday, and said during a town hall program on MSNBC on Wednesday, "I think somebody at the Wall Street Journal doesn't like me … [I've] never done well with the Wall Street Journal poll."


Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
New CBS National Poll just out - massive lead for Trump. The Wall Street Journal/NBC Poll is a total joke. No wonder WSJ is doing so badly!
4:26 AM - 18 Feb 2016

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/rupe.../18/id/715047/

I don't believe Rupert Murdoch. He needs to go back to Australia and leave our country alone. He's an immigrant naturalized citizen you know. So many of these people are interlopers. Same with Soros.