Focus group participants argued and shouted at one another over former President Donald Trump in chaotic clips that CNN aired Friday.
Host Erica Hill teased the “bitter rematch” expected between President Joe Bidenand the presumptive GOP presidential nominee as the network aired “never-before-seen” footage from Republican pollster and communication strategist Frank Luntz.
“How condescending was [Barack] Obama? I couldn’t stand to watch that guy,” said one focus group participant, referring to Trump’s Democratic predecessor. “He just looked down on top of everybody. Trump will get down in the dirt and work with you.”
“You want respect, but you have a president who takes on women, minorities — everything but white males he attacks,” responded another as he criticized Trump.
“And you know what? He won the election. And he won. And you guys can’t handle that,” replied the first participant, while the Trump critic chirped back that the former president never won the popular vote.
In another clip, a woman stated that she didn’t know why the former president is “racist,” telling Trump supporters that they’d have to “ask him” directly.
“He says all those Mexicans are rapists and murderers,” the woman said.
“[Trump] said: They send the worst among them. Some of them are rapists. Some of them are drug dealers and murderers,” one man replied.
“Can I finish?” the woman shot back.
Reflecting on the footage, Luntz said that people now speak without “editing” or censoring themselves.
“We say what we want people to hear rather than trying to learn,” Luntz said.
“To me, it’s not about the mistakes made; it’s about the lessons learned. And no one’s trying to learn anything from this. They simply want to be heard, and they will shout to be heard.”
