Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Prominent Pollster Spars With Co-Host Who Calls Trump Supporters Con Artist ‘Victims,’ ‘Piece Of Sh*t Human Beings’

Screenshot/YouTube/Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova

Pollster Nate Silver disputed his podcast co-host Maria Konnikova’s characterization of former President Donald Trump’s supporters as “victims” of his con artistry and “cynical piece of shit human beings” during an episode posted to YouTube on Friday.

Trump is currently only trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by 3% nationally, with 46.1% to her 49.1%, according to Silver’s “Silver Bulletin.” When Silver asserted on “Risky Business” that “47% of the country is going to vote for Trump,” Konnikova claimed that “they’re victims of a con artist,” but the pollster countered that a significant portion of the former president’s voters are simply acting in their own interests.

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“They will never be persuaded otherwise because victims of con artists will stay victims and will always think that the person that they’re following is not a con artist,” Konnikova said. “They are true believers.”

“For many people it’s in their narrow self-interest to vote for Trump,” Silver responded.

Konnikova agreed, adding, “Then there are those cynical piece of shit human beings — yeah, that I’m just going to — who vote for Trump just because of cynical self-interest and don’t give a fuck what happens to the rest of the world and the rest of the country. Those people also exist. Sorry listeners.”

Konnikova laughed and Silver responded that he “disagree[s] with that characterization.”

“First of all, I hope we have some Trump listeners … Look, I disagree with that … I don’t think it’s a bad thing if people vote in terms of their narrow self-interest. I think that’s a part of a political economy that can be healthy,” he said. “I think sometimes Trump understands that you do want to appeal to people’s sense of identity and people aren’t doing some Cartesian expected value calculation, right, about the impact of climate change or whatnot.”

Konnikova agreed, but doubled down on her belief “that there are people who are completely cynical and who have this sort of very narrow lens of ‘What’s better for my bottom line, I don’t give a fuck what happens to anyone else in the world except for me and I’m going to vote for the person who makes that better.'”

Trump has a 13-point lead over Harris on who voters think would more effectively manage the economy, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll published on Sept. 19. More than 50% of voters view Trump’s term in office as “a success” while only 37% view President Joe Biden’s presidency as successful, according to a Tuesday CNN poll conducted by SSRS.