“Absolutely disastrous”: GOP pollster says Trump’s debate performance will cost him the election

During Tuesday night’s debate against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump boasted, again, about his crowd sizes and even went as far as to accuse Haitian immigrants of eating people's cats and dogs — in other words, he did exactly what Republican pollster and former strategist Frank Luntz wanted him not to, The Daily Beast reported.

Now Trump will pay for his poor performance in November, Luntz said Wednesday. “It was a pretty negative performance — pretty pessimistic, cynical, contemptuous,” he said on Piers Morgan Uncensored, adding: “And I think that this will cost him, yes.”

Following the debate, polls, focus groups, and most TV commentators concluded that Harris did better during the debate, in part by successfully baiting Trump. Meanwhile, Trump seemed surprised that the ABC News moderators were interested in fact-checking his many false claims.

During the conversation with Morgan, Luntz said: “I’m trying to decide if I want to go on record, and the answer is yes: I think that he loses because of this debate performance.”

The GOP pollster added that Trump’s refusal to look at Harris during the debate will only hurt his cause, especially with women. “Donald Trump reminds women of their first husband’s divorce lawyer,” he said. “That is just absolutely disastrous.” He predicted that the full effect of the debate would be felt in polls within a week, HuffPost reported.

Of course, the former president left the debate wholeheartedly believing a completely different truth: that he beat Harris.

Later he wrote on Truth Social: “People are saying BIG WIN tonight!” He added in another post: “I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!”

The vice president immediately challenged the former president to another debate, which he admitted to Fox News on Wednesday morning he was now "less inclined” to take her up on.