Margin of Error? CNN’s Cornish Cites ‘ONE Republican’ to Suggest Trump's Losing Fans

Give me a phone and a list of registered Democrats, and I’ll find you one who thinks Donald Trump's the greatest thing since sliced bread — and Gavin Newsom is the devil incarnate.

That’s essentially the level of polling rigor Audie Cornish brought to Tuesday’s edition of CNN This Morning.

Discussing issues ahead of the State of the Union address, Cornish said:

“We called up one of the people we polled, a Republican voter, Sean from New Mexico. He said: ‘I think people were expecting Trump to provide a bit of relief to their suffering. Grocery prices are just through the roof. Everything is so expensive.’ So this is even, like, a Republican voter.”

One Republican voter.

Out of tens of millions nationwide.

From that lone voice, viewers were invited to infer broader Republican discontent.

If your sample size is one, your confidence level is zero. Margin of error: 100%.

CNN didn’t present data showing a measurable shift among GOP voters. It presented a single phone call. Finding one Republican unhappy about grocery prices proves only that somewhere in America, a Republican is unhappy about grocery prices. That’s not analysis. That’s anecdote dressed up as insight. In reality, CNN found 82 percent of Republicans approve of Trump -- down eight points from a year ago. But "Sean from New Mexico" is typical?

Cornish also highlighted polling showing that only 12% of independents want Trump to focus on immigration in his address. The implication: immigration no longer ranks high among voter concerns.

There’s a simpler explanation. Trump acted. Enforcement tightened. Crossings dropped sharply. He brought the immigration crisis under control.

When the border was overwhelmed, and cities strained under record migrant inflows during the Biden administration, immigration dominated the news cycle. Now that the chaos has been curtailed, the sense of crisis has declined. Issues voters believe are being handled tend to fade from the top of the list.

But campaign season has a long memory. Expect Republican TV ads replaying footage of mass illegal crossings during the Biden administration — migrants flooding across the Rio Grande, overwhelmed processing centers, cities straining under migrant inflows — followed by a blunt contrast: “Chaos under Democrats. Security under Republicans.”

To discuss immigration, CNN political analyst Seung Min Kim referred to Trump hosting at the White House “so-called Angel Moms” — mothers whose children were killed by illegal immigrants. Putting air quotes around "Angel Moms" diminishes them, as if they're just easily exploited Trump tools. Standing next to Trump somehow ruins your cause.

From a one-man poll to “so-called” grieving mothers, the framing spoke volumes — about CNN’s liberal bias.

Here's the transcript.

CNN This Morning
2/23/26
6:54 am ET

AUDIE CORNISH: This just in: with just a day to go until President Trump addresses the nation in his first State of the Union of his second term, a new CNN poll finds he's got some convincing to do. 

When he addressed Congress nearly a year ago, his approval rating stood at 48%. That's the highest across both terms. Now, that is down to 36%. I'm bringing in the group chat to talk today. 

Margaret Talev, senior contributor for Axios, Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA Today, and Seung Min Kim, CNN political analyst and White House reporter for the Associated Press. 

I'm going to turn to my White House folks first, because you guys, this is when, this week, we start to hear them setting expectations for the speech, and setting expectations for what he feels he needs to accomplish. 

What are you hearing about what they think he needs to do on Tuesday?

SEUNG MIN KIM: Oh. I think what, we're actually getting a little preview of kinda of the theme of his address later today at the White House when he hosts the so-called Angel Moms. And so he's really focusing on immigration as he kicks off his State of the Union week.

But as we see in the poll, the number one concern for voters continues to be affordability. 

CORNISH: Yes. Let me show that part of the poll, because it's interesting. You mentioned immigration. But when you look at, at least in this, among independents, immigration, 12% of them want to hear about this in this address. 

KIM: Right, right. I mean, this is a base issue. I mean, this is something that his core voters really care about. But if he wants to appeal to the broader public, the, the, the the population of the vote, or the segment of the voters that he actually brought in,in the election because they were concerned about the economy, that's the target audience that they want to hit. 

I'm sure we'll hear about it at the State of the Union tomorrow night, but how much of a focus is it? I think that's still to be determined.

CORNISH: So, we called up one of the people we polled, a Republican voter, Sean from New Mexico. He said, I think people were expecting Trump to provide a bit of relief to their suffering. Grocery prices are just through the roof. Everything is so expensive. 

So, this is even like a Republican voter knowing, like, look, we all knew what the ask was when voters supported him for a second term.