Trump cites the 'best pollster in Britain' in baseless claims that Biden stole the election, but that pollster is accused of lying about having a PhD
The pollster Trump referenced in his tweet is Patrick Basham, who over the weekend wrote of "a mountain of evidence, direct and circumstantial, of widespread ballot fraud."
Basham is the founding director of the Democracy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank that predicted Trump would win by a landslide. Basham is also someone scholars have accused of faking having received his PhD, which was first reported by the Daily Beast.
Scholars writing in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal in 2008 said there is no record of Basham having earned his doctorate as he claimed.
"In two BMJ blog postings Basham was referred to as 'Dr. Basham'. Basham has claimed on a number of occasions to have a doctorate. For example in 2008: 'Mr Basham earned his BA, MA, and PhD. degrees in political science from Carleton University, the University of Houston, and Cambridge University, respectively'. Today his LinkedIn page lists a 'PhD in Political Economy from Cambridge University' under qualifications," the post reads. "We have found no published source claiming Basham has a PhD from any other university."
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-cites-questionable-pollster-to-back-up-clai-illegitimate-election-results-2020-11?r=US&IR=TEditing to add a tweet from a Twitter user who contacted 538 to ask about the Democracy Institute's polls, and who got a response saying "we have reasonable cause to believe that they're a fake pollster and are fabricating their data."
Editing again to add a tweet about the head of the Democracy Institute being "a guy that worked for the tobacco industry to manage public opinion against warning labels and restrictions. Hardly a unbiased pollster, her is a conservative operator."
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213996828In two BMJ blog postings Basham was referred to as ‘Dr. Basham’. [2,3] Basham has claimed on a number of occasions to have a doctorate. For example in 2008: ‘Mr Basham earned his BA, MA, and PhD. degrees in political science from Carleton University, the University of Houston, and Cambridge University, respectively’.[4] Today his LinkedIn page lists a ‘PhD in Political Economy from Cambridge University' under qualifications.[5] We have found no published source claiming Basham has a PhD from any other university.
Basham registered for a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1995.[6] Despite a claim that Basham had completed his doctoral dissertation by 2001,[7] ,the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge reports that the thesis, was only ‘submitted to the Degree Committee’ some three years later on 6 April 2004.[8] It was examined later in 2004 by Jennifer Lees Marshment, then at the University of Keele.[9] It appears the thesis was returned to Basham for revision with a view to a further Viva.. Cambridge confirms that Basham was 'withdrawn on 8 July 2009 without qualification’. In other words, Patrick Basham does not have a PhD from Cambridge University.
It can also be noted that Basham's co author John Luik, has reportedly been dismissed from two academic posts over irregularities in his CV. He reportedly claimed, while at the Nazarene College in Winnipeg from 1977 to 1985 'to have a doctorate from Oxford University'. He eventually received his doctorate but 'not until 1986.'[10] Luik went on to work at Brock University in 1986, until an official investigation reported,(
), that he had cited ‘visiting professorships that didn't exist, books and articles that simply didn't exist’ in his CV.[10]
In the Basham and Luik article on obesity and in one of Basham's blog posts on tobacco, no competing interests were declared.[1 2] In another blog post on 'snus' tobacco, Basham stated that he had 'no competing interests with any of the snus manufacturers.' [3] It is difficult to evaluate these claims since the Democracy Institute, the think tank to which Basham and Luik are affiliated, is not transparent about its sources of funding.
https://www.bmj.com/content/336/7638/244/rr
= new reply since forum marked as read
