Rove: Trump declining in polls since hush money conviction

Republican strategist Karl Rove said Saturday that former President Trump has been declining in the polls since his New York hush money case conviction.

“I agree; in fact, take a look at the evidence,” Rove said when asked by Fox News host Paul Gigot on “The Journal Editorial Report” if he agrees there is “movement towards” President Biden in the polls following the conviction. 

Rove also held up a whiteboard that appeared to list polls.

“Here it is,” Rove continued. “These are the polls since June 1st. If they’re in red, Donald Trump won ‘em, if they’re in blue, Joe Biden is leading, and if they’re in green, it’s a tie. And take a look, from the 1st of the month, where it’s Trump up by 1, Trump up by 2, Trump up by 1, Biden up by 1, a tie, Trump up by 2, Biden up by 2, tie, Biden up by 2. So there’s been a trend since the … May 30th guilty verdict in the New York case.”

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s average of national polls, Trump is ahead of Biden by only 0.6 percentage points, at 44.5 percent support versus the current president’s 43.9 percent. 

The former president became the first former U.S. president to have the status of being a convicted felon last month, following a jury finding him guilty on all counts of falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair amid his 2016 campaign.

Biden and Trump are set to debate next week for the first time since 2020, and Rove has previously said that a debate between Biden and Trump would be the most significant one in recent decades.

“This will be the most important presidential debate, if it happens, since at least the 1980 presidential debate,” Rove said on Fox News to anchor Martha MacCallum back in April.