Frank Lutz, a high-profile pollster who appears frequently on cable news, has said his profession is finished after its performance in the 2020 election.
The video: Luntz appeared on Fox News on Wednesday and issued a public apology to fellow GOP pollster John McLaughlin.
- According to Luntz, McLaughlin’s prognostications for the Trump campaign had been more accurate than those of The New York Times, The Washington Post or CNN.
- “In the end, we have to believe in accountability in the polling profession, in the political profession, even in yours, in the media profession. The public has the right to accountability, and we have the responsibility to deliver it,” Luntz told anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
In a tweet on Saturday, Luntz had rejected McLaughlin’s prediction that President Donald Trump was leading in all the swing states.
- “I don’t believe it,” Luntz said. “But if he’s right, he’s a genius. If he’s wrong, I wonder if he’ll ever work again.”
Done-zo: On election night on Tuesday, with early results from Florida and other battlegrounds indicating experts had seriously downplayed Trump’s support, Luntz offered an even more dire self-assessment.
- “The political polling profession is done,” he told Axios’ Mike Allen. “It is devastating for my industry.”
Last month, Luntz said that if Trump managed to defy the odds again in the 2020 election, as he did in 2016 to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton, it would mean the end of polling.
- “The public will have no faith, no confidence,” he said on Fox News.
