A new CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday showed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump up two points over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. But Meet the Press Daily host Chuck Todd was quick to unskew the poll.
"Folk, it's time for a bit of a reality check, and let's start with the big shock from this morning, the CNN poll that has gotten the most attention," Todd said. "They have Trump up two among likely voters but this poll assumes a lot of things. It assumes an electorate that we've never seen before, whites without a college degree appear to make up nearly half of their sample."
Todd said that whites without college degrees only make up more than a third of voters in 2012. He said that if CNN had reweighted the poll to match what the electorate looked like in 2012, then the poll would show that Clinton would be up on Trump by four points.
"The point is your numbers may not be wrong but your weighting may be," Todd said.
The Washington Post also released a 50 state poll, that showed Clinton up by a single point in Texas and trailing Trump in Iowa by four points. Texas has been a consistently red state for decades and President Obama won Iowa twice.
"So here's a little bit of a reality check, sure this race is closer nationally than it was a month ago," Todd said. "It's hard to ignore all of the polling noise because it does drive perception, even if some of those numbers are off. So you have to tread cautiously with these numbers, especially around Labor Day. Be aware of shock polling unless that polling happens again and again."