House Democrat Rep. Melanie Stansbury Shows Poll With Obvious Error

Look, math is hard. I've never been much of a math guy, but if I were in Congress, I'd probably make sure any statistics I brought to a hearing didn't have an obvious error in them.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) and her staff did not do that.

Stansbury was at a House Oversight subcommittee on DOGE hearing, and she decided to roll up with what might be one of the ugliest visual aids I've ever seen. I mean, don't go overboard and waste money on it, but maybe try.

But hey, all that matters is the data, because you can't argue raw data… unless that data adds up in a way that is not mathematically possible.

According to Mediaite, Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA) pointed out the mistake.

"The poll behind you, behind our ranking member, it adds up to 110 percent," Rep. Jack noted. "Just wanted to clarify, is it meant to add up to 110 percent, or is that an error?"

Now, again, I'm no math guy, but if you're talking in terms of percentages, you can't go above 100%.

I think most of us would've turned around, done a bit of quick mental math, realized the mistake, and pulled down the piece of posterboard, but not Rep. Stansbury.

She doubled down, because that poll came from Quinnipiac, dammit.

"This is from a Quinnipiac poll that was held two weeks ago, and this is the data that was provided," Stansbury said. "There’s a wealth of information, including information about Donald Trump’s falling poll numbers. So you should take a look."

That smug response and ricochet at the Quinnipiac pollsters (great hockey school too, by the way) was a choice, and it probably would've worked in her favor if she wasn't sitting in front of stats that even a remedial fourth grader could tell you were wrong.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — not one to shy away from opportunities like this — also took a moment to call out the goofed-up poll when given an opportunity.

"The gentleman yields, and it still adds up to 110 percent!" Greene said. "That’s a fake poll right there!"

But hey, people make mistakes — and so do congressional interns — so we reached out to Rep. Stansbury's office to see if the congresswoman is now aware that the poll results added up to 110%, making them mathematically impossible.

We have not yet received a response.