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A leading Republican pollster has argued that former president Donald Trump is his own worst enemy as he tries to regain the White House.
Frank Luntz told CNN this weekend that Trump would improve his standing in the presidential race if he focused on the issues instead of personal attacks.
The former president’s polling numbers have declined since President Joe Biden left the race and Vice President Kamala Harris took up the mantle for the Democrats.
Luntz argued that Trump’s personal attacks are pushing away voters who may otherwise have backed him.
“He’s been very negative and very hostile,” Luntz said, adding that he has “lost his balance.”
The pollster highlighted Harris’s improved poll numbers compared to Trump’s downward slope. “The change over the last 17 days has been significant,” he said.
“If it’s about issues, Trump is much more likely to be successful. If it’s about attributes, Harris is much more likely to be successful because, quite frankly, people like her more than they like him.”
But Luntz added that Harris is winning right now and is likely to get another bounce in the polls from the Democratic National Convention which begins on August 19.
Harris leads Trump in three critical swing states, a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted between August 5-9 found, a dramatic turnaround following Biden’s exit.
Harris leads Trump by four points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan – 50 to 46 percent among likely voters in each of the battleground states. But voters still prefer Trump when it comes to immigration and the economy, the poll shows.
Luntz said that Trump has “lost touch” with people and that Harris is relating better to crowds as she has shown at her rallies.
Trump has made a number of personal attacks on Harris, including making outrageous claims about her race during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago last month.
“She happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” he said.
Harris’s mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican, making her the first Black and Asian-American person to be vice president.
Harris later described Trump’s remarks about her as the “the same old show of divisiveness and disrespect.”
