In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Wednesday night, pollster Frank Luntz weighed in on the first debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris .
Luntz, who watched the debate with 15 undecided voters from eight battleground states, said that his focus group had complaints about both candidates.
“The complaint about Kamala Harris was that she was abrasive and condescending. The complaint about Mike Pence was that he was too tired, but [he was] vice presidential, or presidential,” he said.
Luntz explained that undecided voters often disregard policy and focus on personality, saying that “this was Mike Pence’s night.”
He noted, however, that “it’s not that Pence did so well, it’s that they felt both candidates were not answering the questions as well as they would have liked.”
As The Hill reported, although the candidates were civil and, for the most part, refrained from interrupting each other, both of them repeatedly dodged difficult questions.
Pence, for instance, refused to directly answer a question about the White House’s decisions amid President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and did not say how far he would go in rolling back abortion rights.
Harris, on the other hand, did not take a position on packing the Supreme Court if Trump nominates and confirms Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
She also wouldn’t say whether Democratic nominee Joe Biden would impose new lockdowns and a mask mandate to curb the spread of COVID-19 and declined to explain her past support for the Green New Deal.
According to Luntz, his focus group was “frustrated” with both contenders.
The voters, he said, were irked by Pence’s refusal to respect time limits and Harris’ reactions to his behavior, “the smiling, the smirking, the scowling.”
If the press is fair, they will compile a video of Kamala’s facial expressions from tonight.
If they’re fair. #VPDebate
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 8, 2020
Luntz concluded that his group was “more agitated with Kamala’s presentation than they were with Mike Pence.”
“It was clear that Mike Pence was the winner of tonight’s confrontation.”
In a post-debate poll from CNN , 59 percent of respondents said that Harris won, while 38 percent said the same of Pence. Women voted for Harris in a 69 to 30 percent margin, while men were about evenly split.
The Democrat also managed to boost her favorability ratings, according to the survey, with her numbers going up among both men and women.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the debate got plenty of attention on social media platforms. Notably, the fly that landed on Pence’s head as he and Harris were delivering closing remarks inspired countless viral video clips and memes.