While the Democratic Party in the USA is amid its Convention, the Republican camp pushing Donald Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance for the 5th November US Presidency election are unwilling to face the fact that their Democratic opponents Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Waltz have taken the lead in recent polls.

At a Fox News appearance, JD Vance was unwilling to give weight to Trump’s wilting poll numbers and dismissed the numbers. He told the host at a Fox programme that polls were being used as a tool to discourage the Republican faithful from voting for Trump in November.

He said, “Consistently, what you’ve seen in 2016 and 2020 is that the media uses fake polls to drive down Republican turnout and to create dissension and conflict with Republican voters.” He wanted to tell everyone watching the show that the Trump campaign was ‘in a very, very good spot.”

Vance added: “We’re going to win this race; we just have to run through the finish line.”

When confronted with new numbers from a New York Times poll, Vance said that the Siena poll quoted “tended to radically overstate Democrats” and argued that the surge in support of Kamala Harris was just “a sugar high”, as the Trump campaign showed that the enthusiasm was “levelling off”.

He claimed that if one were to talk to insiders in the Democrats’ presidential campaign, “they are very worried about where they are because the American people just don’t buy the idea that Kamala Harris, who has been vice president for three-and-a-half years, is somehow going to tackle the inflation crisis in a way tomorrow that she hasn’t in the past 1,300 days,” he said.

Then, when pressed after getting presented with the numbers from the Washington Post/ABC News poll showing Harris with a 4 to 5-point lead nationally, Vance told his host that if he thought the momentum was not swinging, or his internal polls were suggesting differently, “every other poll that has been released has shown great momentum in her direction.”

As expected, Trump’s running mate dug in his heels and said that Harris’ numbers were “stagnating” and went on to also knock the Post and ABC News‘ polling as also being “wildly inaccurate” ahead of the 2020 race, where President Joe Biden soundly defeated Trump.

“We can’t worry about polls,” Vance said. “We must run through the finish line and encourage everybody to get out there and vote.”

At the same time, he said that their message is going to be very simple, and if one wanted to get back to peace and prosperity and the rising take-home pay, Donald Trump has already delivered it once, and he can do it again.  

Meanwhile, as expected, for four days this week, Kamala Harris, until now “just” the Vice President, is on the crest of a wave while the Democratic National Convention is underway. She is riding a wave of voter enthusiasm as, 76 days before the election, the DNC is transforming itself into the race against former President Donald Trump. 

Less than a month after Biden stepped aside and swiftly endorsed his Vice President as the nominee, Kamala Harris officially won the Democratic presidential nomination in an online vote. It is the first time a nominee for the presidency has been named before a party’s Convention.

The Democratic party leaders will hold a ceremonial vote at the Convention, and Kamala Harri and her running mate, Tim Walz, will officially become Donald Trump’s presidential challengers.

As for Trump, he has been quite loud, claiming that he preferred Joe Biden to be his opponent. He has now complained on social media: “So now, for the first time in American history, I’ll have to beat TWO Candidates, the second being a Radical Left Marxist, Comrade Kamala Harris. It’s not fair…”.

Main photo: Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO