Pollster Luntz: Harris Picked Wrong Time to Go Negative

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Pollster Frank Luntz said Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris might have waited too long to tell Americans how she will govern immediately should she win on Nov. 5, instead using the waning days of her campaign to go negative against Republican former President Donald Trump.

“The public wants to know more,” Luntz said, according to a transcript of his appearance Monday on “CNN Newsroom.” “They want to know what she will do in her first day, in her first week, in her first month. And the campaign is going more and more negative on Trump, using Trump’s own words against him, but it’s a focus on Trump rather than herself.

“At what point is she going to tell the American people what she’s about? At what point is she going to get specific, detail-oriented? Who wins and who loses? I think that that’s the most important attribute right now. And I don’t see it happening.”

Luntz said with Election Day next week, voters know everything they need to about Trump, but not Harris, and he said he doesn’t understand why.

“We really should be talking about Vice President Harris,” Luntz said. “Why has she not caught on? What’s holding her back? She had one of the most successful launches of any presidential candidate in modern history.

“She went from 5 points behind to 3 points up in a matter of weeks. And then she turns on Trump, and then her campaign stops being about what she’s going to do and starts being about what he’s done and will do.

“And I note that it just froze right there. And, in fact, she’s probably retrenched, a point or two since she hit her peak.”

Harris has laid out an agenda for Black and Latino men in recent weeks, but Luntz wondered, “What about a program for all Americans?”

“What is going to happen with affordability?” he said. “What’s going to happen with the border? The two biggest issues, immigration and affordability?

“She’s done an excellent job on focusing on the abortion issue, on the women’s health issues, and even on healthcare, but those aren’t the No. 1 and No. 2 issues for all of America, and she still hasn’t said what she’s going to do unless I missed it.

“And she’s only got seven days to go. I’m wondering if she’s too late.”