Anyone who watched Monday night’s presidential debate knows that Donald Trump got creamed. He needed to prove to undecided voters (and people who won’t tune in except for the debate) that he wasn’t crazy and unstable—and he failed miserably.
Which is the consensus from virtually all media pundits, GOP consultant Frank Luntz’s focus group, and the few scientific polls that have popped up since.
But that’s not what Trump supporters are saying, because they create their own reality. As the Daily Dot reports:
Donald Trump supporters artificially manipulated the results of online polls to create a false narrative that the Republican nominee won the first presidential debate on Monday night.
The efforts originated from users of the pro-Trump Reddit community r/The_Donald and 4chan message boards, which bombarded around 70 polls, including those launched by Time, Fortune, and CNBC.
And, presto! You suddenly see a bunch of online polls that claim—despite any objective measure—Trump “won” the debate. Even though one can vote in these unscientific survey hundreds of times.
It was only a matter of time before Trump himself started repeating this trope. After blaming the microphone for his poor debate performance, he soon started crediting all the fake polls:
Ummm, Donald? First of all, it wasn’t just that CNN poll. Public Policy Polling also says you got your butt kicked. But more importantly, your supporters don’t get to vote 1,000 times each come November.
Sorry, buddy.
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