CBS Tees Up Pollster to Chide NRA
On Wednesday's CBS This Morning, co-host Rebecca Jarvis asked a
pollster for a liberal anti-gun group what he thought of the NRA's
response to the Newtown shooting.
CBS hosted Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist but also a pollster for
Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Co-host Rebecca Jarvis asked him, "what do
you make of the NRA's strategy here to say there should be someone in
every school system in America holding a gun protecting the kids?"
"That's
not quite the language that they used and if that was the language they
used, they'd be even more opposed to it," responded Luntz, showing more
fairness to the NRA than CBS did. He predictably criticized the NRA,
though.
"The public wants guns out of the schools, not in the schools," Luntz
continued. "And they are not asking for a security official or someone
else. I don't think the NRA is listening. I don't think that they understand."
Co-host Jeff Glor had also asked Luntz how Republicans were faring in the talk over guns:
"Frank, you're a Republican strategist but you've also done some polling for the Bloomberg group Mayors Against Illegal Guns. I want to ask you, how are Republicans doing right now on the gun control debate?"
A transcript of the segment, which aired on CBS This Morning on December 26 at 7:09 a.m. EST, is as follows:
REBECCA JARVIS: Republican strategist Frank Luntz, a CBS News political
analyst, has been talking with voters about the fiscal cliff and he
joins us now. Frank, good morning.
FRANK LUNTZ, CBS News political analyst: Good morning.
JARVIS: So what are the chances you see this becoming the compromise,
the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's new deal on the table?
LUNTZ: I'm not sure if either side is watching very carefully and
listening to what the American people think. We did a survey for the
Republican Main Street Partnership, and we got two very interesting
questions, one that's very tough on Republicans. When we asked the
American people who is the GOP fighting for and representing? The number
one answer, the rich. The number two answer, big business. Well, well
back is number three, hard-working taxpayers. By the Republicans
fighting this tax increase on the most wealthy Americans, the public
looks at that and says once again the GOP is standing up for the rich.
What the Democrats don't understand is that the hostility towards how
much Washington spends, that this whole discussion over the last six
weeks has been about raising taxes on the wealthy rather than cutting
wasteful Washington spending.
JARVIS: Let's say we do get a deal, Frank, though, and it is the Harry
Reid deal that might be on the table where it's short-term spending cuts
and people don't have someone to blame because we don't go over the
cliff but ultimately the markets don't like it, the world economy
doesn't like it, investors in U.S. debt don't like it. And ultimately
our currency becomes in jeopardy as the currency of the world. What
happens then? Who do they blame?
LUNTZ: Well, at this point they are going to blame the Republicans
because of the communication failures of the last six weeks, but I need
to get at the core of this. You ask the American people to choose, or
you even ask them if they can have both, tax increases and budget cuts.
What they really want is to end the spending even more than raising the
taxes. They will accept a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans, over
70 percent now support that tax increase. But an even higher percent
support significant spending cuts, and that's not part of the Democratic
package. So I'm saying is that both sides here have a problem with the
American people and it's why Congress has an 11 percent job approval
rating. Gadhafi had a 15 percent job approval rating, and that was among
the people who killed him.
JEFF GLOR: Frank, you're a Republican strategist but you've also done
some polling for the Bloomberg group Mayors Against Illegal Guns. I want
to ask you, how are Republicans doing right now on the gun control
debate?
LUNTZ: Well the public doesn't look at it as a Republican or Democratic
issue. In fact, over the last three or four days, I think more people,
more families, based on what I've heard, have spent time talking about
their fear of gun violence than they have over the fiscal cliff. It's a
completely different situation when you have little children killed than
anything we've had before. And the public is asking, if not insisting,
that something be done so this doesn't happen again.
GLOR: Does something get done, Frank?
LUNTZ: At this point, look, I know these people in Washington. Some of
them may be watching now. They don't talk to each other. They don't have
dialogue. They don't have conversations. This system in D.C., and the
American people voted for it, they voted for these incumbents, they
voted for the President, they voted to re-elect Republicans in the
House. There is no compromise, and I think that's going to grow as a
concern among the public as we move into 2013.
JARVIS: Frank, what do you make of the NRA's strategy here to say there
should be someone in every school system in America holding a gun
protecting the kids?
LUNTZ: That's not quite the language that they used and if that was the
language they used, they'd be even more opposed to it. The public wants
guns out of the schools, not in the schools. And they are not asking
for a security official or someone else. I don't think the NRA is
listening. I don't think that they understand. Most Americans would
protect the Second Amendment rights and yet agree with the idea that not
every human being should own a gun, not every gun should be available
at any time anywhere for anyone. That gun shows, you should not be able
to buy something right there and then without any kind of check
whatsoever. What they are looking for is a common sense approach that
says that those who are law-abiding should continue to have the right to
own a weapon, but that you don't believe that the right should be
extended to everyone at every time for every type of weapon.
-- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center
