Christie dismisses post-convention poll that found no increase for Trump

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) dismissed poll findings released Sunday that indicated President Trump’s favorability remained flat after the Republican National Convention, while Democratic nominee Joe Biden experienced a boost after his convention. 

Christie countered the ABC News/Ipsos poll by saying on ABC’s “This Week” that neither Trump nor Biden received an increase in favorability as both virtual conventions had low viewership numbers. 

“The fact is no one got a bump out of this convention, not Joe Biden, not Donald Trump,” he said. 

Chris Christie: “What the president needs to do is continue to do what he started to do on Thursday night, which is to not draw a contrast on personalities, but draw a contrast on issues.” https://t.co/P6iz1jjwYE pic.twitter.com/kmtNR7jHor

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 30, 2020

The poll found that 31 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Trump after the Republican convention, an insignificant change from the 32 percent favorability the week before. 

Biden’s favorability reached 46 percent this week, after it jumped 5 percentage points last week following the Democratic National Convention. 

Christie acknowledged that Biden does not have the “personal negatives” that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had ahead of her 2016 presidential race against Trump. But he said Biden has lower levels of enthusiasm than Clinton had and than Trump has currently. 

The former governor said Trump’s Thursday acceptance speech “very effectively” focused on a “contrast on issues” rather than a “contrast on personalities” of the candidates.

“The question becomes how does the president draw this into a binary race between his vision of America and Joe Biden’s vision of America,” Christie said. 

“If he does that I guarantee you … this is gonna be a very very close race,” he added. “He started to do it Thursday night. He’s gotta do it even more over the next 65 days.”