A top GOP pollster tried to find out why people love Donald Trump — and left with his legs 'shaking'
When Donald Trump insulted John McCain and questioned his status as a "war hero," some analysts...
Business Insider
Wed, Aug 26, 2015, 7:24pm EDT - US Markets are closed
A top GOP pollster tried to find out why people love Donald Trump — and left with his legs 'shaking'
By Brett LoGiurato, Maxwell Tani and Adam Banicki
8 hours ago
When Donald Trump insulted John McCain and questioned his status as a "war hero," some analysts dubbed it the turning point of the Trump campaign.
But some of his most ardent supporters have proven why, more than a month later, Trump continues to surge in polls.
"I don’t think he was necessarily
trying to insult him," one voter who described herself as being a Trump
supporter said Monday night, as part of a focus group conducted by pollster Frank Luntz.
Luntz presided over the focus group Monday night in
Virginia; it featured 29 people who either support Trump or have at some
point during the campaign expressed support for him. Business Insider
attended the focus group.
Their
unfettered support has fueled Trump's rise in Republican primary polls
and kept him in the top spot for months. No controversy appears to faze
them out of the many Trump has endured — from controversial comments over immigration, to the McCain comments, to a bitter, lingering feud with Fox News and host Megyn Kelly.
The focus group should not be considered
representative of the Republican Party as a whole, or of the electorate
in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire. But their unwavering
support indicates that there may be nothing that can take down Trump.
"This is a different cat. This is a different phenomenon," Luntz told reporters after conducting the focus group.
"This is real. I'm having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking," he added.
"I want to put the Republican
leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up.
They don't realize how the grassroots have abandoned them. Donald Trump
is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their
grassroots."
(AP) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a news conference, August 25, 2015, in Dubuque, Iowa.
No controversy appeared to dim their level of support for Trump.
On
Trump's feud with television personality Rosie O'Donnell, one panelist
said she "attacked him first." A majority of respondents reacted
negatively to his comments on McCain, but Luntz said Tuesday night that Trump was the only candidate this cycle to score a perfect 100 from respondents when they viewed his comments on veterans.
Even
his history of more liberal positions on certain issues didn't appear
to faze voters. One panelist asked the others in the room "how many" of
them had not changed their positions on anything over the past 15 years.
The group was "prepped to dismiss every negative," Luntz said. "His base cannot be broken."
Almost everyone in the room agreed when
Luntz asked if the media was "more about inciting than informing," and
all but one panel member agreed or did not respond when asked about
whether they are inclined to automatically support Trump when he is
attacked by media outlets.
"The media and the establishment are deathly afraid of Trump," a panel member said.
"That's why I particularly love him. Because the media has become de facto the power behind the throne in this country."
"Every time the media thinks it's got a 'gotcha,' he turns it around on them," another panelist said.
And
at the end of the session, when reporters from The Washington Post and
The Associated Press came into the room to ask questions, several
outspoken panel members made snide comments.
"They need to start reporting again," a panelist said after Washington Post reporter Robert Costa left the room.
And when an Associated Press reporter introduced herself: "That's too bad."
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