CNN Guest Dismisses Growing Trump Support, Says Pollsters Are ‘Talking to Imaginary Black Folks’

A CNN guest on Wednesday night dismissed polls showing former President Donald Trump drawing increased support from black voters, claiming some were “paid” to back the former president.

Trump, who garnered 12 percent support from black voters in 2020 according to a CNN exit poll, exceeds that level of support in recent general election polls by CBS, which shows the former president getting 17 percent, and Fox News, which has 26 percent. Commentator Angela Rye claimed that pollsters were talking to “imaginary black folks” when asked about polling by CNN guest host Pamela Brown.

“I don’t make anything of these polls that are talking to imaginary black folks. I would love to know, for one, who they’re talking to, because I’ve not seen them anywhere,” Rye claimed.

The Fox News poll, released August 14th, was conducted August 9th-12th with a 3 percent margin of error, while the CBS poll, released August 18th, was taken from August 14th to 16th and has a 2.1 percent margin of error.

“I think that they are, you know what, they might be the invisible man that Ralph Ellison talked about in his book,” Rye continued. “I don’t know who these people are. There was a Trump ad that was released, I believe today, that’s targeting black women voters. And there are these people who allegedly exist all throughout the country, and they’re reading scripts. You can see their eye-line going over here. And I think some of them might be paid to say some of these things. I’m not sure.”

Black men in Georgia expressed support for Trump, citing economic policy and his personality in a recent Sky News segment. Other voters told The New York Times in July they were sick of “pandering” from Democrats, calling it “insulting.”

“I’m not giving any credit to these polls. Polls end up being wrong all the time and I’ve seen polls that say 15 percent, 19 percent, 18 percent of black folks,” Rye said. “I don’t believe it at all. I really don’t.”