Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz explained how the 2024 presidential election reminds him “so much of 2016” on Thursday as he argued why Donald Trump has the “momentum” over Kamala Harris.
“I think there are a lot of similarities, right now, between this campaign and that campaign. The divisions in the country were significant back then, people didn’t think Trump had a chance back then,” Luntz told CNN’s Sara Sidner.
“He’s been gaining and gaining, the momentum.”
Sidner, earlier in the segment, noted that the GOP pollster has argued that President Joe Biden “may have tanked” the vice president’s chances to win following his “garbage” comment earlier this week.
“But she’s also come out and said, ‘No, no, no. I’m gonna give people a seat at the table and not call them the enemy within,’” said Sidner, referring to the former president’s alarming rhetoric for political foes.
“Why do you argue that this might be the big issue?”
Luntz later said he doesn’t know who’s going to win the election, adding that “nobody should” call it because it’s “way too close to call.”
“However, the momentum is clearly, in what I see and what I hear, is in his favor,” he said of Trump.
“And so every word, every phrase, every misstep, every gaffe matters as those last remaining persuadables make their decision.”
Luntz declared that he doesn’t “believe in the undecided anymore” before posing a rhetorical question.
“Do you actually come out and vote if you don’t like either candidate? Because that is the vast majority of persuadables,” Luntz said.
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He continued, “People who don’t like Trump’s attitude, don’t like his persona, people who aren’t still sure what Harris will do in the first day, first week, first month, first year.”