Hands grabbing former President Donald Trump’s New York properties could hand him the White House, a pollster says.
Pollster Frank Luntz appeared on CNN Thursday amid talk that New York State Attorney General Letitia James could begin seizing Trump’s properties on Monday.
James sued Trump in a civil fraud case that ended with Trump being ordered to pay millions, with $464 million due Monday. Trump has indicated that making that payment — which under state rules must be made for Trump to appeal — could be difficult, leading to speculation that James is poised to seize Trump’s properties in posh Westchester County, New York.
Luntz said if James does this, he is helping Trump.
“I want you to remember this moment. And don’t forget that,” Luntz said in a video of the segment published by Mediaite.
“If the New York attorney general starts taking away his homes, starts seizing his assets, everything will be caught on camera. The pundits will sit there and shout about it, “This man can’t get elected.” You will create the greatest victimhood of 2024. And you will elect Donald Trump,” Luntz said.
“If they get his stuff, he’s going to say that this is proof that the federal government and the establishment in the Washington swamp, and all the politicians around the country and the attorneys general and everything else, that this is a conspiracy to deny him the presidency,” he said.
Luntz noted that this has happened before.
“He’s going to go up in the polls, just like he went up every time they indicted him. The accusation – and we’re not talking about whether it’s justified or not – but he’ll prove the things that he said on the campaign trail, and he’ll go up, and they might just elect him president. Don’t forget that,” Luntz said.
Luntz gave James some advice.
“And I say this right now to the attorney general, if you play politics on this, this is what the secretaries of state did in Colorado, and what they did, I believe is Maine, its numbers went up in both states “, he said.
Luntz then noted that failed attempts to crush Trump made him stronger.
“I don’t understand. I’m almost speechless at how pathetic the opposition to Trump has been and how completely misguided it has been. And this is a perfect example of that,” he said.
Luntz noted that despite everything thrown at him, “Trump is in the lead. And in the seven swing states, Trump is up within a margin of error in five of seven.
“Why is this happening? Because his critics are stupid and are running a horrible campaign,” she said.
Below is an excerpt from the interview.
CNN commentator SE Cupp, in a subsequent discussion on CNN, said that many Trump supporters do not need another reason to support Trump.
He said many voters “don’t care about these things. You care about the fact that you haven’t gotten a raise in five years, you care about the fact that the border seems borderless, you care about crime, you care about opioids, you care about the economy.”
A former Obama fundraiser and real estate developer said the fraud lawsuit and efforts to penalize Trump are mistakes.
“I expressed concern because I think this is a very slippery slope to selectively enforce an archaic law that has no victims,” Don Peebles said, according to Fox News.
“I think they are confident, or I think it is likely that the situation will be reversed, and then there will be no punishment,” he said.
“So they are rushing to inflict as much pain on him as possible right now because once the appeals court puts a stop to this, there will be no repercussions,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.