Donald Trump has been accused of “mass distortion of reality” after he shared misleading polling data on the two of the Democratic congresswomen of colour he targeted in a series of racist tweets.
He tweeted that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had an approval rating of 21 per cent, while Ilhan Omar had a rating of just eight per cent.
It came as the US president insisted that he did not have a “racist bone” in his body and called the vote to condemn his racist attacks directed at the four congresswomen as a “Democrat con game”.
Mr Trump had said that some Democratic congresswomen should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” in a series of tweets on Sunday.
While the US president did not name the targets of his attack, the context of his tweet made it clear it was aimed at a group of four progressive Democratic women of colour – Ms Omar, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.
Defending his previous remarks, Mr Trump tweeted on Tuesday: “This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country.”
“Get a list of the HORRIBLE things they have said”
He added: "Omar is polling at 8%, Cortez at 21%. Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party. See you in 2020!"
However, the data he cited was based on a poll by news website Axios which only surveyed “white non-college voters” who supported Mr Trump in 2016.
In response to Mr Trump’ tweet citing the data, Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote: ”Authoritarians rely on mass distortion of reality to further concentrate their power, and they will take advantage of anyone and anything to meet that end.”
The data has since been criticised eviscerated by polling experts.
Ariel Edwards-Levy, the Huffington Post’s polling editor, said: “Readers have no way of knowing who commissioned the poll, who conducted it, how they identified the voters they surveyed, what methodology they used to interview them or what exactly respondents were asked.”
“That makes it basically impossible to evaluate the survey in any meaningful way.”
The House of Representatives voted in favour of the resolution condemning Mr Trump’s racist tweets on Tuesday night.
The vote was largely along partisan lines with only four Republican congressmen backing the measure.
