Talking Points Memo (TPM) reports that many of the members of the focus group featured in a recent Bloomberg video exploring the meaning of being a Trump supporter, aren’t actually Trump supporters.
TPM interviewed one of the supposed supporters and found her love of Trump, as purported by the video from Bloomberg, was not sincere.
“What they’re taking is these snippets of us saying positive things to answer questions where they asked us to state a positive thing and then representing it as if we’re all his staunchest supporters,” Jessica DeBurro told TPM. “And we’re not.”
Again TPM:
DeBurro said that focus group participants did voice concerns that Trump was a “hothead” and may “say something really stupid.” She added that she had the impression that the focus group would be talking about all the Republican presidential candidates until the focus group settled into the studio.
“They were looking specifically for conservative voters and they asked us for our three choices,” she said. “So I didn’t realize it was entirely about Trump until we got there and [Heilemann] said, ‘Oh, we’re going to talk about him, mostly.'”
So far, no solid theory as to why Bloomberg would create a slanted piece like this has emerged. Yet, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to find out that something is amiss about the interview. After all, Republicans have constantly had a hard time finding living, breathing people to support Trump, even going so far as to pay off actors to attend his presidential announcement.
