November 13, 2022

Republican pollster Frank Luntz appeared on Fox News to explain to Howard Kurtz how Trump-endorsed candidates failed miserably during the midterm elections. Luntz is saying that Trump picked terrible, horrible candidates. "Candidates matter," he said. "And if you're going to nominate the worst candidates, don't be surprised when the results don't end up in your way."

Trump is expected to announce a run for 2024 on Tuesday, and Luntz seemed to find that ludicrous. "How do you announce when you had such a bad showing?" Luntz listed some of the Trump-endorsed candidates that lost.

"I could fill up the entire segment on how many Trump candidates lost," Luntz said. "I don't know how he announces. Maybe he just doesn't get the message."

Luntz is taking a lot of heat for his 2022 predictions on the midterm elections.

"I want to explain why it was wrong," he told Kurtz later. Luntz explained that Trump was a negative and shouldn't have targeted DeSantis and Youngkin, so swing voters came out for Democrats.

I remember this tweet from 2018. Luntz gave Trump credit for being able to read the teleprompter while not going off-script to lash out at the world. If I remember correctly, CNN's Van Jones said something similar at the time.

Luntz is being realistic today, but if Trump speaks without inciting an insurrection, or doesn't target someone in particular, then Luntz will have good feels about the former President again. That's how low the bar is.

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