Ex-DNC Chair Rendell: Trump Doing Better Than Polls Show

ed rendell speaks at an event

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell (Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Prostate Cancer Foundation)

By Brian Freeman | Sunday, 09 August 2020 05:02 PM

President Donald Trump is doing better in the key swing state of Pennsylvania than what the polls indicate, former Democratic National Committee chair Ed Rendell said in a new interview that aired Sunday, explaining there are a significant number of people who don't want to admit that they are voting for him.

Speaking on "The Cats Roundtable" radio show on WABC 770AM hosted by John Catsimatidis, Rendell, who was also Pennsylvania governor from 2003 to 2011, said that "when the polls had Hillary [Clinton] winning Pennsylvania comfortably, I said I was worried because with Donald Trump there is an effect with the polls that's very much like Frank Rizzo, our former mayor in Philadelphia, who was a rough, tough guy … who wasn't liked by African Americans, and wasn't liked by liberals."

Rendell explained that "Rizzo would always poll four points worse than he did on Election Day. … There were some people who didn't want to admit to the pollster that they were voting for Frank Rizzo."

Rendell said the same effect happened in 2016 with Trump, adding that it is happening again now and the race in the state of Pennsylvania is much closer than the surveys show. Currently, polls in the Keystone State have Biden in the lead.

Regarding Biden's vice presidential pick, Rendell said "There's no one in my judgment who is outstanding, but there's no one who would violate the basic maxim for picking a vice president: Do no harm," adding that "all the candidates are decent."

He also said the media's concentration on the progressive wing on the Democratic Party is exaggerated because almost all the congressional democrats who won back red seats in 2018 were moderates, insisting this is the way that Biden would also govern if he wins.

Poster Comment:

I am not voting for Frank Rizzo.