July 30, 2015

It turns out that "Donald Trump" supporter starring in Bloomberg News' video featuring Trump groupies (Trumpets? Trumpies?) is actually a Ben Carson supporter.

I know, not much better, but still.

Jessica DeBurro was prominently featured in a video of the focus group posted to Bloomberg Politics' website that showed 12 Granite State residents fawning over Trump's everyman appeal and vast wealth. Bloomberg Politics described the focus group participants as "12 Republican and independent voters who are supportive of Donald Trump's presidential candidacy," while co-managing editor John Heilemann, who led the focus group, further stated that the participants were Trump supporters whose "second choices in the Republican field ran the gamut from Jeb Bush and John Kasich to Ben Carson and Ted Cruz."

But DeBurro, a data analyst, told TPM Thursday in a phone interview that she is actually a supporter of Carson's and not Trump's. She added that while all the participants in the focus group had listed Trump among their top three favored Republican presidential candidates, just one person was "100 percent a Trump supporter."

It turns out people could get into this focus group by just saying Trump might be one of their top picks.

"As part of our screening process, New Hampshire voters were asked who they would support if the primary were held today," the spokeswoman said in an email. "Every person in our focus group answered saying they would either support Donald Trump, or lean towards supporting Trump."

So why is there video of this woman glowing over The Donald? Looks like the questions were loaded.

While most controversy tied to the show has focused on Bloomberg Politics impresario Mark Halperin, DeBurro further alleged that interviewer Heilemann, Halperin's co-host, pumped them to think of positive things to say about Trump which could then be edited together into a Trump fawn-a-thon. "What they're taking is these snippets of us saying positive things to answer questions where they asked us to state a positive thing and then representing it as if we're all his staunchest supporters," she explained. "And we're not."

Your Fourth Estate, hard at work.

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