Establishment Republican pollster Frank Luntz looked more like a CNN host than a Republican pollster in a room full of committed Roy Moore voters. Luntz was obviously frustrated, as Alabama voters dug in their heels, and refused to back down on their support for Judge Roy Moore in today’s Senate election to fill AG Jeff Sessions seat in Alabama.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Frank Luntz, a GOP establishment messaging consultant, was visibly flabbergasted as every single one of his focus group participants in a Birmingham area Vice News-produced panel backed Judge Roy Moore for U.S. Senate.
Titled “Why These Alabama Voters Are Sticking By Roy Moore,” Luntz’s Vice News focus group aired on Vice News Tonight on Dec. 8 on HBO.
“Are you all Christians here?” Luntz opens the seven-and-a-half-minute long segment. “Yes,” all of the focus group participants, who joined Luntz in a Birmingham area restaurant, replied.
“Is Roy Moore a good Christian?” he followed up.
“Yes,” one woman replied. “Absolutely,” another said.
“Absolutely?” Luntz followed up in disbelief. “Yes,” the woman shot back. “Without any doubt whatsoever?” Luntz asked again.
After some more back and forth, a man in the focus group spoke up. Scottie Porter, a real estate developer, said:
He’s not my choice, I’m not voting for him because I like him. I’m voting for him because I don’t want Doug Jones. But Roy Moore is entitled to the presumption of innocence in the law and in the Bible just like anybody else should be. There are only accusations. There have been no charges filed. All you have is a group of women who have come forward.
“How many? How many?” Luntz pressed Porter.
“Seven,” he replied.
“There’s really only three,” one woman yelled out.
“How many women have to come forward before you say ‘wait a minute, where there’s smoke there’s fire’?” Luntz asked the group.
Chuck Moore, a retired sales consultant, replied: “It’s about the legitimacy, not just how many. How many are not being paid? Or being coerced to do this?”
“How many of them do you think are being paid?” Luntz asked the group.
“All of them,” some replied in unison.
“By a show of hands, how many of you think all the women are being paid?” Luntz asked the full group.
Three hands in the group went up.
“Seriously?” Luntz asked in disbelief, before the camera turned to homemaker Jane Wade.
“To me, there are only two women that have a smoking gun but the women’s—their reputations are questionable at the time,” Wade said.
“Is this how you want to be treated as a woman if something were to happen to you? Do you want to be dismissed that way?” Luntz asked Gina Doran, a retired school bus driver.
“You better have proof,” Doran fired back at Luntz.
Watch:
