Harris leads Trump in new presidential poll

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is embracing a number of the Republican Occasion’s outdated standbys as her personal as she positive aspects floor on her GOP rival, former President Donald Trump, pollster Frank Luntz mentioned Tuesday.

Harris “is taking pages out of the Republican playbook,” Luntz mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Field.”

The political strategist meant that as a praise to the vp.

He credited Harris for what he known as her “necessary use of language,” pointing to her give attention to small enterprise points and describing herself as a capitalist. He additionally famous her occasion’s emphasis on freedom in the course of the Democratic Nationwide Conference.

“In the event you simply pay attention to those basic statements, she truly appears like a reasonable Republican,” Luntz mentioned.

“So the problem for the Trump marketing campaign is to simply cease with these incessant character assaults, and problem her on the precise points and her claims,” he mentioned.

“As a result of, let me inform you one thing, going to The New York Occasions’ most up-to-date ballot, she is starting to chop via,” he added.

That ballot from The Occasions and Siena Faculty, launched Tuesday, discovered Harris main Trump nationally for the primary time since President Joe Biden dropped out of the election because the presumptive Democratic nominee in mid-July.

The ballot of three,385 doubtless voters surveyed from Sept. 29 to Sunday gave Harris a slight fringe of 49% to 46% over Trump, inside the ballot’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 share factors.

The prior Occasions/Siena ballot, in mid-September, discovered the candidates tied at 47%.

The brand new ballot indicated that Harris is making positive aspects amongst older voters and Republicans.

And for the primary time within the Occasions/Siena ballot, extra respondents recognized Harris because the candidate representing change as an alternative of Trump.

Luntz mentioned he has seen comparable shifts towards Harris in focus teams of undecided voters that he tracks.

He mentioned these voters “moved away from Joe Biden in an intensive approach” earlier than the president give up the race.

However, “They transfer in direction of Kamala Harris after that first debate,” Luntz mentioned, referring to her Sept. 10 showdown with Trump.

“And proper now they’re asking: Who’s telling me the reality?”

Luntz additionally weighed in on Harris’ look on CBS Information’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Monday night time.

It “took some time,” however Harris is now “taking the powerful interviews” and “being challenged,” he mentioned.

Harris has been criticized for ducking unscripted public appearances and avoiding main media interviews since she took over the Democratic ticket.

However her “60 Minutes” interview flips that script, Luntz argued, as a result of Trump backed out of a scheduled look on the identical program and has refused to debate Harris once more.

“It’s Donald Trump who’s ducking debates,” Luntz mentioned. “She will get credit score for that.”

Trump’s marketing campaign claimed at first that negotiations with “60 Minutes” fell via as a result of the present insisted on doing reside fact-checking of Trump’s claims.

The marketing campaign later insisted that Trump deserved, however by no means obtained, an apology from the present’s reporter Lesley Stahl for a way she dealt with his prior look in 2020.

Luntz faulted Harris for not providing specifics in her “60 Minutes” interview on her declare that she would partially fund her financial plans by ensuring the richest Individuals “pay their fair proportion in taxes.”