Pollster Frank Luntz said Thursday that one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ responses during her Wednesday CNN town hall perfectly exemplifies why her campaign is struggling.
When asked by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper whether she supports building a border wall, Harris quickly shifted to attacking former President Donald Trump instead of giving a direct answer. Luntz, on “Squawk Box,” criticized Harris’ pivot to Trump, arguing she should have stated her support for wall funding if elected in November.
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“I think that clip illustrates exactly why Harris is in trouble at this point, and it’s something that I don’t understand why the campaign does not address. They asked her specifically, ‘Where do you stand on the wall?’ And what does she do? She goes and shifts it right to Donald Trump, immediately mentions him twice within the first five seconds,” Luntz said. “She still hasn’t closed the deal. She still hasn’t said to people exactly what she would do.”
“In fact, what she should have done in the opening of that town hall is said, ‘I want to tell you what I’m going to do in the first hour, in the first day, and in the first week, and it’s going to take me five minutes. So, Anderson, you’re going to have to sit tight. Here’s what we’re going to do by 1:00 p.m.’ She didn’t do any of that,” he added. “She hasn’t told the public step-by-step what she’s about.”
CNBC Host Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Luntz about how Harris should have responded to Cooper’s question.
“She’s supposed to say, ‘Within the first 24 hours, I’m going to introduce legislation that supports the wall. And supports the DREAM Act for progressives who want people who came in through no fault of their own and improves illegal immigration so more people can come here the right way.’ It is such an easy compromise, and she doesn’t say it,” the pollster said.
Harris previously referred to the border wall as “stupid” and Trump’s “medieval vanity project,” which Cooper brought up during his question to Harris. However, she now supports the bipartisan border bill proposed in February, which would spend hundreds of millions of unspent public dollars on further construction of a border wall.
Harris has changed her messaging from promoting joyfulness to attempting to portray Trump as a danger to the United States as her campaign comes to a close. Luntz said Tuesday that Harris will “fail” to secure an election victory “if she’s just beating up on Donald Trump.”
Trump now holds slim leads over the vice president in all of the seven top battleground states, according to the RealClearPolling averages.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Rumble/CNBC)
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