Frank Luntz Criticizes Kamala Harris For Failing to Provide a Single Change from Biden in 65 Second Clip — Fails to Note Her Proposals Shortly After

Frank Luntz is a well-regarded, long-time Republican pollster who recently gained bipartisan credibility despite his decades of working with the GOP.

If you think he still has some pro-Republican bias in his blood, a recent social media post criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris will confirm your suspicions.

A 65-second clip first posted by Axios reporter Alex Thompson is at issue. It features Late Night host Stephen Colbert asking the Democratic nominee what major changes she will bring to office from the Biden-Harris administration where she currently serves.

Harris’s answer, featured in the short clip, can be fairly criticized as standard political pablum. She jokingly asserts that the most significant change is that she is “not Joe Biden” before pivoting to an attack on her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

“But also, I think it’s important to say with, you know, 28 days to go, I’m not Donald Trump,” she offered. “And so when we think about the significance of what this next generation of leadership looks like, were I to be elected president.”

And so, if you thought that was the beginning and end of the dialog about change, you would think her non-answer was worthy of ridicule. Which brings us back to Luntz, who posted a critique on X:

Look, one can reasonably criticize Harris’s answer and standard political, non-answer answer fare. And while it’s unreasonable to suggest she’s somehow going to throw her administration under the bus by announcing new things they aren’t currently doing, surprisingly, the Harris camp hasn’t figured out a better answer to this question that they had to know was coming, which got Harris into trouble during a glowing interview on The View.

The thing is, if you were to watch the larger segment, Harris actually does provide new proposals to how her administration would be different than the current one. Are they major changes? Probably not. Are they sound policy measures that will save the middle class as she claims? No one rightly knows and reasonable people can disagree on policy.

However, to criticize her for not advancing a “single proposal in her 65-second response” as Luntz does here? Either he’s completely oblivious to the fact that TV interviews can run longer than 65 seconds or maybe he’s revealing a deeper bias for conflict or something more partisan. Only Luntz can explain.

After a bit too much throat-clearing and set-up, Harris eventually got to her new proposals:

So my plan includes extending a tax deduction for startup small businesses to $50,000 instead of what currently it is at $5,000 because nobody in 2024 can start up a small business with $5,000. My. My I believe and, you know, I spend a lot of time talking in particular with with young families, young people across our country. And and frankly, Stephen, the American dream right now is really elusive for far too many people in terms of even aspiring to own a home. It’s too expensive. We don’t have enough housing. We have a housing shortage. So part of my plan is to work with the private sector, with builders and developers to build 3 million more homes by the end of my first term and to give first time homebuyers a $25,000 downpayment assistance so they can just get their foot in the door to homeownership, which is the fastest and the most efficient way for people to build intergenerational wealth.

Again, there is room for reasonable criticism of whether these policies will change or even be implemented. There is also room for criticism of Harris’s ability to get to the point in a pithy, concise manner.

But for Luntz to criticize Harris for not submitting any proposal, when she does just that when you view the broader segment? That’s just unfair criticism and Frank Luntz should know better. I suspect he would agree upon watching the entire back and forth.

UPDATE: In a tweet posted on Friday, Luntz acknowledged his mistake.

“I got this wrong,” he wrote. “I assumed @AlexThomp had posted Kamala’s full response to Colbert’s question – but he cut the clip right before she proposed a higher tax deduction for small businesses and building more homes.”

Watch above via CBS.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.