After weeks of warning Donald Trump that he must improve his performance to prevent a Kamala Harris victory in November, Republican pollster and former strategist Frank Luntz predicted that Tuesday night’s weak presidential debate would be Trump’s final end.
“It was a pretty negative performance – pretty pessimistic, cynical, contemptuous,” Luntz said on Wednesday at Piers Morgan uncensored“And I think that will cost him something, yes.”
“I’m trying to decide if I want to say that officially, and the answer is yes,” he added. “I think he loses based on his performance in the debate.”
Following the debate, in which Harris was ahead according to polls, focus groups and testimony from numerous network commentators, Trump attacked the moderators for fact-checking his numerous false claims.
Harris immediately challenged the former president to another meeting, but Trump told Fox News on Wednesday morning that he was “less inclined” to attend because he felt he did so well the first time.
Luntz made his prediction regardless of whether further debates take place.
“It’s not the worst debate performance I’ve seen in my career, but it comes very close,” Luntz said, pointing to “the conversations about people eating dogs and cats, the labeling of the Hungarian president as one of the world’s greatest leaders, the repeated missed opportunities to focus on inflation and affordability, and the complete inability to make his case without completely tearing her, Joe Biden, or anyone else who was in his sights to pieces.”
It’s safe to say Trump didn’t heed Luntz’s advice after Harris’s sudden entry into the race in July. The following month, Luntz told CNBC that Trump should stop talking about crowd sizes at his rallies – which he did immediately on Tuesday after Harris mentioned his continued fixation on the issue.
Around the same time, Luntz said on CNN that Trump had been “very negative and very hostile” – traits that were on display again Tuesday night before an audience of 67.1 million people, according to Nielsen.
