Capitol Notebook: Trump threatens to sue Iowa pollster, newspaper

President-elect Donald Trump threatened Monday to file a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register and famed Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, whose final survey before the Nov. 5 election badly underestimated Trump's support in the state, which he won.

“In my opinion it was fraud and election interference," Trump claimed of the survey, according to the Associated Press.

The incoming president took questions from reporters Monday at Mar-a-Lago in Florida during his first news conference since winning election.

ABC News last week agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate assertion on the air that the Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. Instead, Trump had been found liable for sexual assaulting and defaming her.

Trump on Monday previewed future legal action he planned to take against the news media. “I'm not doing this because I want to, I'm doing this because I feel l have an obligation to,” he told reporters.

“I'm going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good pollster, who got it right all the time and then just before the election, she said I was going to lose by three of four points,” Trump continued. “And it became the biggest story of all time, all over the world.”

Selzer announced last month that she would retire her polling operation, a decision she said she had made well before the election.

The pollster, whose sterling reputation took a hit when it missed the Trump-Harris result in Iowa by 17 points, said she has seen nothing in the polling data that should have signaled the results were off.

“If you’re hoping that I had landed on exactly why things went wrong, I have not,” Selzer said Friday during recording of “Iowa Press” at Iowa PBS Studios in Johnston. “It does sort of awaken me in the middle of the night, and I think, ‘Well, maybe I should check this. This is something that would be very odd if it were to happen.’ But we’ve explored everything.”

State: Boy’s school reaches ‘substantial compliance’ with overhaul

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The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services says Iowa’s school for troubled boys has “achieved substantial compliance” with a court-ordered overhaul of the Eldora facility.

The State Training School for Boys, run by the state, houses boys who have been found delinquent in juvenile court for committing crimes. Children’s rights groups sued the state in 2017, asserting youths placed in the juvenile facility in Eldora were subject to excessive use of seclusion rooms and restraints and did not receive adequate mental health care. A judge subsequently ordered major changes to the school’s discipline methods and its mental health care services, and appointed a juvenile justice consultant to monitor the remedial plan.

“Emphasis was placed on treatment and skill development to improve quality of life and outcomes,” according to a news release. “Youth now receive behavioral health assessments, evidence-based and trauma-informed therapeutic and skills-based interventions, individualized interdisciplinary behavioral health care, 24/7 crisis response, and transition and reentry services. STS has reshaped how staff interact with youth, motivating and managing their behavior, while maintaining safety and security paramount to the facility.”

The school must now maintain compliance for two years before the external monitoring can cease.

The State Training School for Boys currently serves 64 youth with an overall capacity of 80 beds.

Reynolds urges confirmation of Trump’s Homeland Security pick

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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds was among 22 Republican governors who signed a letter encouraging the U.S. Senate to confirm Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Noem has been nominated to the post by President-elect Donald Trump. It is among the federal agency leadership posts that must be confirmed by a vote of the U.S. Senate.

Noem’s “leadership as Governor of South Dakota and deep understanding of the challenges facing our nation qualify her to lead this critical department at a pivotal time in our nation’s history,” the letter says. “Gov. Noem has demonstrated a deep commitment to upholding the rule of law, protecting our borders, and ensuring the safety and security of the American people.”

The letter, addressed to U.S. Senate Republican leadership, calls for Noem’s “swift confirmation.”

Governor to hold virtual public hearing on state budget

A virtual public hearing on the state budget will be hosted by Gov. Kim Reynolds at 2 p.m. Wednesday, the governor’s office announced. The annual meeting serves as “the annual open forum on the state budget,” it said.

Members of the public wishing to participate in the public hearing should RSVP by noon Wednesday with Molly Severn at molly.severn@governor.iowa.gov and Laura Book at laura.book@governor.iowa.gov.

Reynolds will submit her proposed state budget to the Iowa Legislature shortly after it convenes for the 2025 legislative session on Jan. 13.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau