In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning electoral upset, many pollsters ate crow.
On Saturday, one even ate bug.
A polling expert who had previously promised to “eat a bug” if Trump exceeded 240 electoral votes made good on his promise with a breakfast of crickets in honey.
After CNN’s Michael Smerconish reminded Dr. Sam Wang of his wager, the somewhat resigned-looking founder of the Princeton Election Consortium presented what he described as “a can of gourmet-style crickets, and from the point of view of a pet.”
But before he dug in, Dr. Wang, who already appeared to regret his decision, had a few words to say on warning against sensationalist media coverage of the new administration.
“I think that the eating bug thing is in itself sensationalist and keeps us off of important policy issues, such as Supreme Court appointments,” said Wang.
“There are things that can happen to bring the country together. I think the bug thing is not one of them. I wanted to point that out,” he added.
But now, he conceded, it was time to eat humble pie. Or, in this particular instance, humble bug.
“Like John the Baptist in the wilderness, he ate locusts and honey. So I regard myself as being in the wilderness a little. After all, I was wrong,” announced Wang, fork poised.
“A lot of people were wrong, but nobody else made the promise I did,” he continued, before tentatively scooping up a cricket and popping it into his mouth.
How did it taste?
“Kind of mostly honey-ish, a little nutty,” noted Wang, as a visibly tickled Smerconish smiled.
“You delivered. You’re a man of your word,” the CNN anchor noted.
