FOX'S FRANK LUNTZ GOES 'WOBBLY' ON TRUMP
Frank Luntz
Fox News’ frequent pollster Frank Luntz, who took hits in the media for a debate-night focus group composed of members who slammed Donald Trump, has now been forced to admit an eye-opening truth from his new survey: voters really do like the billionaire, and his numbers are truly solid.
A brand-new, 29-person focus group, gathered by Luntz and observed by a group of national news reporters, assembled in a political consultant’s office in the D.C. area Monday to explain their passion for the Republican front-runner and the Trump phenomenon. And what they said left the fast-talking Luntz shaking his head in disbelief, according to Time magazine.
“I think America is pissed. Trump’s the first person that came out and voiced exactly what everybody’s been saying all along,” one man said. “When he talks, deep down somewhere you’re going, ‘Holy cr-p, someone is thinking the same way I am.’”
“When Trump talks, it may not be presented in a pristine, PC way, but we’ve been having that cr-p pushed to us for the past 40 years!” said another man. “He’s saying what needs to be said.”
Focus-group members said they liked Trump before the survey began, and when they finished, “the vast majority said they liked [him] more than when they walked in.”
“You guys understand how significant this is? This is real,” Luntz said in a news conference after the survey, Time reported. “I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
Luntz, on Aug. 7, gathered a focus group together in the studios of Fox News to discuss and rate the performance of the top-tier candidates during the first Republican presidential debate, especially Trump. Their conclusions ran from labeling the candidate as “mean” to “bombastic,” as WND reported.
Luntz famously declared post-debate that Trump’s performance guaranteed the “destruction” of his campaign for the party’s nomination. Trump responded on Twitter by calling Luntz a “clown” and “low-class slob.”
Shortly after those fireworks, it was revealed Luntz allegedly told a group of South Carolina fundraisers in a get-together before the debate that Trump was “addicted” to attention and ought to be stopped from climbing the GOP polling ranks, as he could hurt the party.
He was also alleged to have held a discussion with major donors in the lead-up to the Fox News debate to express his opinion the businessman was “turning what we believe into a joke,” Politico reported.
Luntz further likened Trump to Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in that they both were “delivering a big F– you’ to the elites in America,” he said to Politico.
His rant to Politico ran longer, after which Trump, once again, issued a stinging rebuke – that the pollster was angry with him for refusing to do business with his survey company.
Trump also said then: “I caught him cold. And frankly, if I was [Fox News CEO] Roger Ailes, I’d fire that guy so fast for what he did that his head would spin.”
Donald Trump
Luntz’s firm paid each of the participants in the new focus group $100 for the two-and-a-half hour session. The group was not a representative sample of the Republican party, or early state voters, as all of them had been selected because they support Trump and live in Washington or its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
“I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts,” one man said. “I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”
“I’m frustrated beyond belief. I feel like I’ve been lied to,” a woman said. “Nothing’s getting better.”
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“He’s not afraid,” said a woman who voted twice for Obama. “He keeps prodding on even if people give him negative press. He doesn’t change and apologize.”
Much of Trump’s support in the room seemed to stem from a weakness in the Republican Party, reported Time. Several attendees cited Trump’s hardline stance on national security and immigration policy and his promise to take care of military veterans as their reasons for supporting his candidacy.
The group of 29 went around the room, each supplying a single adjective for the Republican-led Congress that let them down after the 2014 elections.
The legislative body “does nothing.” It’s “too old.” “Useless.” “Lame.” “Inept.” “Wrong party.” “Cocktail party.” “Gridlock.” “Costly.” “Sold out.” “Sucks.” “Douchebags.”
Then, the group did the same for Trump. This time: “Tough.” “Businessman.” “Great.” “Successful.” “Not afraid.” “Leader.” “Has guts.” “Charismatic.” “A true American.” “Kicks a– and takes names.”
The focus group included 23 white people, three African-Americans and three Hispanics.
“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see,” Luntz said at the conclusion of the survey. “They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them. Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots.”
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