Pollster Frank Luntz told “CNN News Central” afternoon co-host Brianna Keilar that Democratic leaders in Congress were “out of touch” and clueless about how to provide alternatives to President Donald Trump.
Democrats’ favorability has plummeted to 29%, according to a CNN poll released in March, while a CNN poll released April 27 showed only 27% of voters approved of the party’s congressional leadership. Luntz said Democrats needed to turn away from the party’s leadership in Congress.
“The challenge is that they’ve got on the Senate side, incredibly ineffective and frankly, out of touch leadership that has no idea how to offer an alternative to Donald Trump,” Luntz told Keilar. “They don’t want to bash, slap around the president. What they want is that agenda delivered in a more efficient, more effective, more compassionate way, and so I’m looking for that. And with the exception of Cory Booker, who delivered a 25-hour explanation of how they can do better, I’m not really seeing that.”
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“You’ve got AOC who’s very public out there, but very extreme, very partisan, very polarizing,” Luntz continued, discussing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. “That’s not what they’re looking for either. The problem with the Democrats, you’ve got one third on that side, on the AOC side, one third on the more centrist side, and one third that simply doesn’t care about the ideology and just wants things to work.”
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is led by White House senior advisor Elon Musk, has identified $160 billion in savings since Trump established it when he took office for his second term on Jan. 20. Luntz said that Democrats needed to follow the example of Republicans after Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
“If I were a Democrat right now, I would not be looking to the Senate or the House. I’d be looking to the governors, the people who actually have to administer policies day by day,” Luntz said. “Let the governors stand up, stand up, come forward with why they’ve been successful in their states. And just maybe, you could start to fashion an alternative.”
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a potential 2028 candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, called for “mass protests” against Trump and Republicans during a Sunday speech in New Hampshire.
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Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
