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Frank Luntz on Biden-Trump debate: ‘Both candidates need to let loose’

by Lauren Sforza - 06/24/24 12:18 PM ET

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Frank Luntz, CEO, FIL, Inc., listens during the Milken Institute Global Conference on October 18, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California.

Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz advised President Biden and former President Trump “to let loose” to make the bigger impression with voters during their upcoming debate.

Luntz described what he will be looking for in CNN’s Thursday head-to-head, reflecting on his past observations of presidential debates in op-ed published Monday in The New York Times. He said that viewers want to see “passion, energy and even anger in service to the interests of the country.”

“A self-controlled Mr. Trump or an adult Mr. Biden won’t be remembered, just as Mr. [John] Kerry and Mr. [John] McCain weren’t remembered. So much is at stake that both candidates need to let loose to make a lasting impression but not in a way that may alienate key groups like suburban women and swing voters,” he wrote.

“In the end, it’s not the facts, the policies or even the one-upmanship that Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump offer in the debate that matters. It’s how they make voters feel,” Luntz said.

Biden and Trump have been preparing in recent days for their first debate since the 2020 election, with Biden hunkering down with aides at Camp David and Trump meeting with lawmakers to discuss policy areas.

Luntz, who moderates focus groups, wrote that the “greatest impact” the front-runners could have in the debate is if they “attack each other in defining ways or undermine the political case that each wants to present to Americans.”

He said that key moments, such as former President Reagan asking, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” or Trump telling Hillary Clinton in 2016 that she would “be in jail” if he won, can make a “meaningful difference.”

He also wrote that expectations for how a candidate will perform also affect how the viewer sees them.

“This week brings us potentially one of the most consequential debates since Mr. Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s. The expectations are already high for Mr. Trump, who dared Mr. Biden to debate at any time or place of his choosing. It is quite possible that Mr. Trump will regret issuing such a public challenge, and Mr. Biden may regret accepting the offer,” Luntz said.