A Focus Group Turned Chaotic When a Trump Supporter Shouted, "You Guys Can’t Handle That!"

Republican pollster Frank Luntz presented CNN's OutFront with footage from a focus group that descended into a heated argument between supporters and opponents of former President Donald Trump, according to Mediaite. Guest host Erica Hill aired segments of the turmoil during Friday's program episode. One person said, "How condescending was Obama? I couldn’t stand to watch that guy. He just looked down on top of everybody! Trump will get down in the dirt and work with you." 

To this, another person replied, "So, you want respect, but you have a president who takes on women minorities, everything but White males." The first person got back and said, "And you know what? He won the election! And he won! And you guys can’t handle that!" A woman then said, "I don’t know why he’s racist. You’d have to ask him… Because he sits up and he says all those Mexicans are rapists and murderers." Hill then brought Luntz onto the program and posed a question to him. She asked, “What are you learning from these groups in these moments?” To this, he replied, “That there’s no editing anymore."

He added, “There’s no censorship, that we now say what we think. We say what we want people to hear rather than trying to learn.” Hill then said, “They wanna be heard. Do they wanna listen?” Luntz answered, "No, they don’t wanna listen. They don’t wanna learn. And my issue in this is, children are watching. Our kids are watching this and they’re learning model behavior.” Luntz mentioned that he has witnessed the most appalling behavior at school board meetings. He said, “The school boards are the worst. Parents go there and they threaten the people on the school board."

He added, "They have to get cops in there. What is wrong with this country that we’ve gone that far?” Meanwhile, in a separate development, just four days into the first criminal trial of a president, Trump displayed signs of frustration, according to NBC News. He had heard numerous New Yorkers express unfavorable views about him, was limited in his courtroom statements, and had been instructed to sit down by the judge. Trump, accused by prosecutors of using hush money payments to influence the 2016 presidential election, is striving to build a parallel case in the court of public opinion.

Furthermore, speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “Instead of being in Pennsylvania or Georgia, or North Carolina or lots of other places today, I’m sitting in a courthouse all day long.” He also mentioned that the process is expected to continue for another four or five weeks. Trump, mandated to be present in court throughout the trial, additionally accused the district attorney’s office of interfering in the 2024 presidential election to benefit President Joe Biden by preventing him from hitting the campaign trail. A significant portion of Friday's events unfolded outside the courthouse, where a man set himself on fire in a park facing the court.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 21, 2024. It has since been updated.