Trump's 'not on this planet' lie ensures historic blowout in competitive state: CNN expert

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) appears to be “leaning into” President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims in his bid for re-election, but according to CNN data guru Harry Enten, the Trump-endorsed candidate’s midterm strategy is all but certain to hand Democrats a decisive victory.

“If Mike Collins thinks that Donald Trump is going to carry him over the finish line, then I have a brave new world that he needs to face because that is a belief that’s just, simply put, not on this planet,” Enten said on Monday. “It is in some galaxy far, far away.”

Despite no evidence supporting Trump’s claims of there being systemic election fraud in the 2020 election, a staggering 63% of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was, in fact, “stolen,” up three percentage points from 2021. And, while leaning into Trump’s false claims may bode well among GOP voters, such claims were “a losing message,” Enten cautioned, in a general election.

According to a recent Reuters/IPSOS poll, 64% of Georgia voters overall believe that the 2020 election was “not stolen,” an increase of five percentage points from 2021. Furthermore, Trump’s net favorability among Georgia voters, according to polling data aggregated by Enten, was at -14.

“Donald Trump deeply unpopular in Georgia,” Enten said. “Mike Collins should be running from Donald Trump – instead, he’s leaning into a belief that, simply put, has no evidence to back it up about the 2020 election.”

Trump’s false claims of election fraud still remain supported by a majority of Republican voters, however, something Enten was taken aback by.

“They just believe this garbage!” Enten said. “Most Republicans, despite all the evidence to the contrary, believe that the 2020 election was, in fact, stolen.”

CNN’s John Berman asked Enten whether leaning into false claims of election fraud was a “winning message” for a general election in Georgia.

“No!” Enten shouted. “This is the whole problem, which is the Republican Party is in one camp all the way over here on the right, and the rest of the American public is in the ‘this-is-the-real-world-we’re-dealing-with camp.’”