According to pollster Frank Luntz and his famous “undecided focus group” extravaganzas he holds after every debate, American voters aren’t nearly as worked up about Donald Trump’s tax returns as the media and Clinton campaign appear to be. In fact, according to Luntz’ appearance on CBS Wednesday, voters might be interested in getting tax tips from the GOP nominee:
“Nobody wants to pay taxes. As long as you don’t break the law, as long as you didn’t do anything unethical, tax payers are fed up with the tax code and they actually did not hold him responsible for that. What they don’t like is how his employees were treated. The goal for the average American is to find some way to reduce their taxes.”
Luntz also noted that the undecided voters “are more upset over Hillary Clinton’s emails than they are about Trump’s tax returns,” and he added “that email issue is going to continue, I think, into the next two debates.”
This cuts against what the media and the debate moderators have een focusing on. Lester Holt made absolutely no reference during last weeks debate to Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized, non-secure, non-government email server to conduct her official business while Secretary of State. He did initiate a laborious exchange over Trump’s tax returns, though.
If the media and debate moderators really want to get these candidates to talk about issues the American voter cares about, they’d start probing deeper into the email issue.
Don’t hold your breath.
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