Fox's Dana Perino Attempts To Correct The Claim That Polls Are Rigged And Crowd Size Is More Important

Perino: “I Saw What Happened In 2012 When Republicans Were Sold A Bill Of Goods That Romney Was Going To Win”

From the August 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

Video file

BILL O'REILLY (HOST): So what's the primary beef against you?

DANA PERINO: Well, I think a lot of Republicans just expect me to be a cheerleader for the candidate and one, it's not my job to do that. And also, I saw what happened in 2012 when Republicans were sold a bill of goods that Romney was going to win.

[...]

I remember Bob Beckel actually saying to me the Friday night before the election, he was like, “Dana, these numbers, Romney is not going to win.” And I went home thinking, “Bob's wrong.” And that night, on election night, I sat next to him and I was like Bob was right. And I vowed just to never do that again. It's a disservice to the viewers and the voters and to the candidate. 

[...]

But you have even the candidate and his supporters starting to tell their voters the polls are rigged. That's not true. That the crowd size matters more than the polls, that's not true. That his social media presence is so big and robust that it's going to blow away Hillary Clinton. 

[...]

I do not think that by any stretch of the imagination that it is right to tell people that just because he has very enthusiastic rallies that that means that there is going to be a surprise and that the polls are wrong. Polls in America, the presidential polls have been correct since 1952. And we should believe them. And I didn't do that in 2012, and I learned a lesson from it. 

Previously:

Bill O'Reilly Hosts Segment On Polling Bias, Learns Polls Wrongly Favored Romney In 2012

Fox's Greta Van Susteren Questions Her Own Networks' Poll Showing Hillary Clinton Beating Trump

Hannity Cites Breitbart, Jim Hoft, And Trump's Facebook Likes To Spread Hope That Trump Will Win In Landslide