One prominent Donald Trump supporter denied Wednesday the additional campaign hires announced in the morning amounted to a “shake-up,” and appeared unaware that polls showed the GOP presidential nominee trailing in the race.
When CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Michael Cohen, special counsel at the Trump Organization, about the shake-up, which reportedly sidelined Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman who had been heading up campaign leadership, Cohen blasted her word choice.
“I’ve got to stop you for one second. There’s no shake-up. Look at the words that you use and you blast at the bottom in your banner,” he said on CNN’s “Situation Room.” “There are no desperate measures. The campaign is on its way to victory, and yet you still use these ridiculous words in order to incite something. Please understand that nobody is buying into it anymore.”
The exchange that followed:
Keilar: “Well let me ask you about this — so you say it’s not a shake up, but you guys are down. And it makes sense that there would … ”
Cohen interjects: “Says who?”
Keilar: “Polls. Most of them. All of them.”
Cohen: “Says who?”
Keilar: “Polls. I just told you — I answered your question.”
Cohen: “Which polls?”
Keilar: “All of them.”
The most recent CNN Poll of Polls found Clinton with an average of 49% support to Trump’s 39%. He’s also trailing in key battleground states — including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina and Florida.
But Cohen said he’s not deterred by the numbers — and that it’s the pundits who are getting it wrong.
“My statement to you is I don’t care about those poll numbers,” Cohen said. “You’re going to all be very surprised when he polls substantially higher than what you all are giving him credit for.”
Trump’s Twitter, which previously touted poll results on a nearly daily basis — particularly after his immediate bump following the Republican National Convention — has been largely silent in recent weeks.
Tuesday, however, he retweeted a poll from The Washington Examiner that put him just two-points behind Clinton — 38% to 36%.