# Mike Johnson Confronted With Nate Silver’s Damning Verdict **By:** Harry Thompson **Published:** 2026-10-27T11:40:06.987Z **Source:** [The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-johnson-confronted-with-nate-silvers-damning-verdict) --- House Speaker Mike Johnson has been hit with some savage polling numbers, live on Fox News. The Louisiana Republican appeared on The Ingraham Angle with Laura Ingraham on Monday night, where he tried to claim that the numbers he had been ambushed with were “wrong.” During the appearance, Ingraham challenged him on polling numbers from a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, ahead of next Tuesday’s midterms. A photo illustration of Nate Silver and Donald Trump. BLUE TSUNAMI Nate Silver Warns of Major Twist in the Midterm Polls Vic Verbalaitis Johnson often speaks to the media and toes the MAGA line. Andrew Harnik/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images That poll, she told him, showed that on the generic congressional ballot, registered voters preferred Democrats 47 percent to the GOP’s 36 percent. “Now, people like Nate Silver say the polls would have to be really wrong, crazy wrong almost, for Republicans to pull out victories in the House, at least,” Ingraham said. “And then you have that new Reuters Ipsos poll showing that registered voters favoring Democrats over Republicans 47 to 36. That’s on the generic congressional ballot. So, do you think that poll is not accurate?” “Yes, the polls are wrong,” Johnson said. “Let me tell you why. Look, in the last 10 days, we had two polling organizations nationwide that have been exposed for completely fraudulent numbers, Wedgewood and SoCal Strategies. “Then you have the more traditional polling organizations having to acknowledge quietly that their numbers are off. “CNN ran a story about a week ago. And they said that 14 out of the last 16 elections, the October generic ballot underestimated Republicans by an average of 4 points. “Laura, I think it’s even further off this time because more and more Republicans are unwilling to participate in these surveys. “They don’t want to give their information to someone on the phone. “They don’t play along. They’re calling it the partisan nonresponse bias. That’s the technical term for ‘Republicans don’t trust you anymore.’” The midterms are expected to be a referendum on Trump. Eric Lee/REUTERS His defiant words come against the backdrop of Donald Trump becoming historically unpopular during his second term. That’s bad news for the GOP, because this year’s elections are expected to be a referendum on him and his performance during his first two years back in the White House. The 80-year-old is underwater across major polls, suffering over issues like the economy and the war in Iran. Ingraham was referring to polling expert and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, who told The New York Times this week that he is confident in the midterm polls. Nate Silver backs the polls. Krista Kennell/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image However, he stressed that polling errors could still swing in either direction. “Most analysts seem to have little to no confidence in the polling, but maybe they should,” he told the Times. “Polls in the past two midterms were pretty accurate and unbiased. More important, they may not be projecting anything all that remarkable.” He added: “‘Waves’ are very normal in the midterms and almost the default outcome. You might expect a bigger-than-average wave given Trump’s approval numbers, gas prices, Iran, and Epstein.” “I could imagine Republican turnout collapsing, giving Democrats an even bigger rout,” he said. See more of our coverage in your search results. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here. 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