Kellyanne Conway says 'undercover Trump voters' will tilt 2020 president's way: 'They're going to surprise you'
Former White House counselor and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested that there could be a secret bloc of voters who will back Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential elections and that, just like 2016, polls showing Democratic nominee Joe Biden having an advantage could be misleading. Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster, had become the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign when she spearheaded Trump's victory in 2016 and had served a key role in the White House in the four years since before stepping down last week for family reasons.
But she has continued to remain vocal in her support for the president and made an appearance to speak during the Republican National Convention before turning up for an interview with Showtime's 'The Circus' to insist that there were "undercover Trump voter[s]" who could tilt the election in his favor.
It was a term she herself had coined in 2016 to explain Trump's shock victory over Hillary Clinton, and she said these voters might prove crucial on November 3. "As the person who coined the term 'hidden undercover Trump voter in 2016,' there are even more of them and they're even more committed now," Conway claimed. "And they're going to surprise you as to who they are this time because you've seen the poll, 62% of Republicans or Trump supporters are afraid to even express themselves, they express themselves at the ballot box."
Conway appeared to be referring to a Cato Institute Survey from July that had shown nearly "two thirds -- 62 percent -- of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive." It also said that "majorities of Democrats (52%), independents (59%), and Republicans (77%) all agree they have political opinions they are afraid to share.”
The Cato Institute survey was not the only one that reportedly indicated there were Trump voters in the country who were not willing to express their support for the president, especially in polls. A Monmouth Institute survey in Pennsylvania from July 15 gave Biden a lead in the state, but 57 percent of those who were surveyed said they believed there were "secret" Trump voters in their communities.
It remains to be seen whether these "undercover" voters will influence the election considering surveys conducted in the key states of Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have all shown Biden leading Trump -- the president had won narrow victories in all three states in 2016 when he defeated Clinton.
In her interview, Conway also addressed a series of other issues, including the death of George Floyd, which she said was a "murder," the racial unrest that has gripped the nation since, the coronavirus pandemic, and her time as a woman in Trump's White House.
The former counselor claimed that the Democrats were using the pandemic for political gain so they could win the elections. "For some reason cynically the Democrats believe they can win an election based on a once-in-a-century tragedy that swept across this nation," she said. "Isn't it sad that they see political opportunism in a pandemic?"