Donald Trump Declares War On Republican Pollster Frank Luntz
Republican pollster Dr. Frank Luntz is known as the master of the political focus group. He’s appeared regularly on cable news channels, with focus groups to analyze presidential debates. The non-politician-turned-presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, has declared war on Luntz, Business Insider reports. He’s not just content to verbally spar with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who is extremely popular with conservatives, he is now taking on Luntz, one of the most highly respected pollsters in the business.
Trump has started this war of words by accusing Luntz of trying to shake him down. Trump claimed once to have declined an offer by Luntz’s research firm, and has accused Luntz of creating an “anti-Trump” focus group that was surveyed on the GOP candidates after Thursday night’s debate on the Fox News channel.
“I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn’t want to hire him commercially,” Trump said of Luntz. “I think it’s disgusting… I think he uses his power at Fox to maybe — to get work.”
Trump called Luntz “unfair” and “terrible” and claims his focus group was wrong about his candidacy.
Luntz denied Trump allegations, In a phone call with Business Insider, Luntz said Trump “launches an attack on everyone who is even remotely critical.” He also suggested Trump would call him the “world’s greatest pollster” if his focus group has said Trump won the debate.
“You’ve got to understand that I don’t care who wins and loses — I only care that I’m accurate,” Luntz said. “Even if I say things that candidates don’t like, I don’t expect them to take it personally. I don’t expect them to launch World War III.”
Trump lashed out at Luntz after the Republican pollster stated that members of his focus group abandoned their support for Trump after they heard what he said in the debate Thursday night, CBS News reported.
Luntz further criticized Trump, in reference to having referred to women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals,” saying, “When you’re talking about a Republican presidential nomination, when these people want to defeat Hillary Clinton, that’s not the language, that’s not the strategy, that’s just not what they want to hear.”
Luntz has compared Trump to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and says both of them are leading the “Disruption Election,” Real Clear Politics is reporting.
Luntz said the campaign this year is the “disruption election,” and added, “It is not about issues, it is about tonality, and the public seems to be responding to those who are the sharpest, most divisive, most outwardly negative about the system.”
This past weekend, Trump continued his verbal battle with Megyn Kelly, when he told Don Lemon on CNN that, when questioning Trump at the debate on Thursday night of last week, Kelly had “…blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Some have taken the last part of the comment as a reference to menstrual cycle. He also called Kelly a “lightweight” and “highly overrated” as a journalist. Since that exchange, other GOP candidates are zinging Trump for the comments, the Inquisitr reported a few days ago.
Can Donald Trump win the GOP nomination by launching these verbal wars against other political and media personalities? Only time will tell.
[Photo of Donald Trump by Richard Ellis for Getty Images.]
