Frank Luntz Says Inflation Is ‘Dangerous’ Issue For Harris Because Voters Blame Biden For Prices

Pollster Frank Luntz called inflation a “dangerous” issue for Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday due to voters blaming President Joe Biden for prices.

Harris is set to deliver a speech Friday which will address how her campaign plans to tackle ways to lower costs, Reuters reported. Luntz said on “CNN News Central” that Harris needs to draw “contrast” from Biden and “show that her policies” won’t hurt the economy.

“The key is affordability. It’s not inflation. Inflation’s what you and I say, affordability is where the average American feels and in the story before setting this up you communicated that it’s things that people care about — housing and health care, which is very expensive. Food and fuel, which is day-to-day items. The public believes no matter what inflation is right now, they’re looking at it over the last four years and that’s a dangerous situation for Harris. She wants to get ahead of it. So it’s smart for her to be doing it. In fact, she doesn‘t really have a choice,” Luntz said.

“Now that she’s the candidate, she’s going to have to draw contrast because the public does not believe that Joe Biden was effective on inflation, and they do give Trump credit in his administration for numbers that we haven’t seen since he was president. One last thing about inflation, everyone feels it, doesn’t matter whether you are working paycheck to paycheck or whether you’re middle-class,” Luntz continued. “Doesn’t matter whether you’re from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona — the south — Georgia, North Carolina, because it’s so universal and it impacts everyone from whether they’re 18-years-old or 80-years-old. This is the key issue because everyone feels it, and Harris has a way to go to show that her policies aren’t going to make a tough situation even worse.”

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A recent poll conducted by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan shows Harris is now slightly leading former President Donald Trump by one point on who Americans’ trust to handle the economy, despite nearly half of the participants still believing the Biden administration “hurt the economy.” However, 38% of voters said the economy would be “worse off” if Harris were to win, with 42% of voters still believing the economy would be “better off” under another Trump administration.

Harris has received backlash since becoming her party’s new presumptive presidential nominee due to her flip-flopping on issues such as defunding the police, Medicare and fracking. Harris recently backed no taxing on tips, which Trump claimed was copying his stance to cut taxes for service workers due to it being a promise he had pushed earlier if he is re-elected.