PHILADELPHIA — Advisers to Hillary Clinton are worried that Democratic white men are lying to pollsters and secretly plan to vote for Republican Donald Trump.

"I worry that there is a bit of a secret Trump vote," said influential pollster Celinda Lake.

She has proof revealed in polls that find more white male support when live people are doing the interviewing and less support for Clinton in anonymous online surveys.

"The pattern is in the online surveys, even if you control for demographics, Trump does three to nine points better than in telephone surveys. So it really does suggest that there is a secret vote for Donald Trump," said Lake.

She said that it happened in polling for President Obama.

"We've had this phenomenon before. We had a secret vote against Barack Obama. White Democrats who thought they were talking to an African American (survey questioner) were more supportive than white Democrats who were talking to whites, or thought they were talking to a white interviewer," said Lake.

She also said that the white male, blue collar worker is a ripe target for Trump. "Trump can also mobilize some voters, some white downscale voters who also haven't voted for awhile," she said.

She described those voters as "downscale, white person who felt threatened economically and who lived near a high concentration of people of color."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com