Trump links WikiLeaks to media ‘voter suppression’

10/24/16 04:46 PM EDT



Donald Trump is using hacked emails released by WikiLeaks to bolster charges that the presidential election is being rigged against him.

During a campaign rally Monday in Florida, Trump accused the media and Democrats of “voter suppression.”

Trump, the Republican nominee, specifically argued that national polls that show Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a healthy lead are based on a sampling that is too heavily Democratic.He argued that media outlets are essentially making polls that show Clinton with a wide lead in order to suppress turnout by his supporters.

“When they leave the polls alone, I'm leading. But you see these polls, they are polling Democrats,” he said, swatting aside the polls with his hand.

“It's called voter suppression, because people will say, 'Aw, gee, Trump's out.' Folks, we are winning. These thieves and crooks, the media — not all of it but much of it — they are the most crooked, almost as crooked as Hillary. They may even be more crooked than Hillary because without the media, she'd be nothing.”

Public national polls typically include more Democrats in the sample because of historic trends that show more registered Democrats typically vote.

Exit polls from 2012 showed that identified Democrats made up 38 percent of the national electorate, while self-professed Republicans made up 32 percent. Exit polls from 2008 showed a similar trend.

In the 2004 presidential election, 37 percent of those voting were registered Democrats, and 37 percent were registered Republicans.

Trump sought to link the Clinton campaign to the media’s effort by pointing to a January 2008 email released by WikiLeaks from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s account, in which Democrats talk about “oversampling” polls.

“WikiLeaks also shows how John Podesta rigged the polls by oversampling Democrats, a voter suppression technique,” Trump said during his rally in St. Augustine, Fla.

Analysis pointing to the email as part of a plot against Trump has taken over conservative media websites since WikiLeaks released the new batch of emails on Monday.

The Podesta email in question came as Clinton faced off against then-Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries.

In the email, campaign strategists for Clinton discuss recommendations for oversampling in their polls.

The 2008 email doesn't specifically explain why the Democratic strategists on the email exchange want to oversample in their polling. It appears to be referring to internal campaign polling.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...er-suppression