Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-Calif.) argued in an interview published Saturday that polls showing former President Trump's growing popularity among black voters are flawed.
“I think Joe Biden is doing exactly what he needs to do to win reelection. There's something wrong with the polls. Look at the recent polls in Maryland. African-American women [Angela Alsobrooks] “In the race for the U.S. Senate nomination, on the Sunday before the election, one poll had her down by five points, another poll had her down by seven points, and she won by 13 points. How do you explain that? That's 20 points,” Clyburn told Politico's Ryan Lizza on the “Deep Dive” podcast.
Lizza noted that a Wall Street Journal poll found that 30% of black men said they would vote for Trump in November, and a New York Times/Siena College poll found that 23% of black men support the former president, a significant increase since 2020.
“If anybody believes that Donald Trump will get 30 percent of the black male vote and 12 percent of the black female vote, I'll sell the Johns Island Bridge,” Clyburn continued.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D.S.C., listens to testimony from South Carolina's DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, nominee for U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Black voters reject Biden as support dwindles ahead of 2024: 'Everything was better under Trump'
“I have no idea what the recent polls are saying, but they say [Jon] Ossoff also [Raphael] Warnock wins Georgia. And they both win. Polls show [Lucy] “McBath won 87 percent of the vote in that district. But she did,” Clyburn said, referring to the Georgia election.
Lizza asked Clyburn again if he was worried about Trump's rising approval ratings.
“I'll tell you what concerns me. What concerns me is the disinformation and misinformation that's being circulated here. What really concerns me is the fact that somehow the media seems more interested in balancing their stories than reporting the facts. That bothers me to no end,” he said.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released Sunday found that support for Biden among black voters in both Michigan and Pennsylvania has fallen by about 20 percentage points since the last election. In Michigan, Biden received the support of 54 percent of black voters, compared with 15 percent for Trump.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump won just 9% of Michigan's black vote in the 2020 election.
The poll found the former president won 11% of the black vote in Pennsylvania, a three-point increase from 2020. A majority of black voters in the state, 56%, still support Biden.
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Black male voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan told ABC News in recent interviews that they lack enthusiasm for either candidate.
“I'm voting, but that's the only option I have. So it's like, 'Hey, do you want to burn your hand on an oven or do you want to burn your hand on a toaster?'” rapper Hitman Hola told ABC.
Hannah Panrec is a deputy editor at Fox News.