“I now have to acknowledge that it is a distinct possibility that Donald Trump could be elected president – I did not believe that one year ago,” Luntz told Bourke. In the interview, published Monday, Luntz argued that Trump’s domestic opponents and the way the court cases against him have been handled have dealt Trump back in and given him a real shot at winning another general election.
“I did not believe that the search of Mar-a-Lago would be handled so badly, I did not believe that the indictment of him in New York would be handled so badly,” Luntz argued, adding:
I did not believe that his opponents would be so inept as to actually strengthen him and the combination of all of those makes him now viable, not just in the Republican primary but in the general election.
Luntz then explained to Bourke that Trump’s positioning in the 2024 race is an existential threat to U.S. democracy and even went so far as to quantify the odds of the U.S. breaking apart. . .
“Everything that I would have [previously] said to you was impossible is actually happening,” Luntz told Bourke at one point referring back to his interview in October 2021, in which he said, “He will not win. If Trump runs again he will be nominated by the Republicans, but he will never be elected president because there are too many people who hate him.”
via joemiller