I don’t put much stock in exit polling results on the issues, especially in terms of reading between the lines as to what they may or may not mean for the candidates on the ballot. But for some in the mainstream media, they are treated as the holy grail, as something that gives great insight as to what could be in store later on into the night as actual election results come in.

With that in mind, watching the below clip from CNN and the reactions from Jake Tapper and Dana Bash to finding out that – according to the exit polling done by CNN – nearly half of America hadn’t fallen for the media’s “Trump has handled the coronavirus pandemic atrociously” narrative gave me more joy than I probably should admit to.

Watch below as Tapper and Bash both react with sincere shock over the fact that almost 50% of the American people said the pandemic had been handled well – and note that Tapper claims as he’s reading the results and chuckling that it was a high number “considering that, empirically, it is not going well”:

In early exit poll 48% of people think U.S. efforts to contain coronavirus are going "well."@jaketapper and @DanaBashCNN appear surprised by the results.

"That's a very high number considering that empirically it is not going well." pic.twitter.com/5odRjXW2CJ

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 3, 2020

Joe O’Brien from ABC News was also shocked at the findings:

What the?
48% in US exit poll say US efforts to contain coronavirus are going well, 51% say badly
Reminder: 230,000 dead and nearly 1m infected
If that is an indication of voting intentions…….
First of exit polls quoted by @cnn

— Joe O'Brien (@JoeABCNews) November 3, 2020

It’s hard to know what they were more shocked about – the general fact that 48% of the American people believe the Wuhan virus pandemic response has been handled well or the fact that the relentless efforts of “news” networks like CNN and MSNBC to paint President Trump as an abysmal failure on the issue have not gone as planned:

Who knows if numbers are accurate, but CNN reports some early exit poll results on voters' top issue. Anchors appear shocked that voters have a more balanced view of coronavirus than CNN.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 3, 2020

For what it’s worth, the exits were done with early voters as well as those who voted today:

For those asking whether the CNN exit polls are just asking people today, they’ve taken steps to include responses from those who voted before today:https://t.co/eR4KtL3kM9 pic.twitter.com/XLZU9gYW7d

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 3, 2020

And with that, I’m off to join my RedState colleagues in the Election Night Live Blog. Hope you’ll join us!