Matt Kittle, a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist, said he believes President-elect Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register will have more of an effect than experts believe.
Trump filed a lawsuit in Polk County, Iowa on Monday, arguing that Selzer’s presidential poll published by the Des Moines Register just before Election Day that showed Vice President Harris with a three-point lead over Trump in Iowa violated the state’s consumer fraud laws by engaging in deception.
While some have expressed doubt in Trump’s case against Selzer (pictured above) and the Des Moines Register, Kittle, who resides in and broadcasts from Des Moines, noted that while Trump’s case is a “tough hill to climb,” it may have a chance of moving forward based on the court that oversees the case.
“The issue ultimately is standing. The president can file this lawsuit, his campaign can file this lawsuit, but they’re going to need an Iowan I think ultimately for this to move forward…There are a lot of conservatives on the benches [in Iowa],” Kittle explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“The Supreme Court, and I don’t know if it’ll get there or not, has a conservative edge and advantage, although at times the conservatives have voted with the liberal justices on the court. There’s an opportunity here. I think that some are shrugging off [the case] maybe too soon,” Kittle added.
In the case that Trump’s complaint is allowed to move forward, Kittle said the defendants in the case would likely be willing to settle the case as opposed to having the methodology of the controversial poll dissected and released.
“John McLaughlin believes that Ann Selzer came in with a poll and things might have been changed or manipulated because it didn’t fit the narrative that the Des Moines Register was looking for. We don’t know that, but certainly depositions and discovery would answer some very serious questions. So I think you’re absolutely right, this could go the way of ABC News and George Stephanopoulos and maybe we’ll get some more cash to the presidential library fund,” Kittle said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Ann Selzer” by Ann Selzer.
