GOP pollster Frank Luntz: Republicans are saying ‘it’s time to move on’ from Trump

Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz said on Thursday that a recent New Hampshire poll showing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) narrowly edging out former President Trump indicates Republicans are saying “it’s time to move on” from Trump. 

During an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Luntz and the network’s chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, spoke about the University of New Hampshire’s latest Granite State Poll, which found that 39 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the state would back DeSantis as their first choice in a list of Republicans who are considered possible presidential candidates. Trump, meanwhile, received 37 percent support in that poll. The results are within the survey’s margin of error of 5.5 percentage points.

“DeSantis is … the greatest threat to Trump when it comes to the Republican Party,” Collins said.

“It’s more than a threat,” Luntz noted. “The governor is proving that his approach and what he’s trying to accomplish and what he has accomplished in Florida is more significant and Republicans are now saying it’s time to move on.”

The pollster noted that Trump is still “the most popular political figure” within the GOP, adding that the former president now has a “specific challenger” for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Trump and DeSantis have not officially announced that they are running in the 2024 presidential election, though the former president has at times teased the possibility.

The development comes against the backdrop of hearings conducted by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which have sought to show the role that Trump and his allies have played in pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence and state officials to overturn the 2020 election results.

“There’s now polling out that shows that Donald Trump is actually paying a price for what these hearings are showing,” Luntz said on Thursday.