I have never seen a candidate more determined to screw up an election (than Trump)

A leading Republican pollster says he has never seen a candidate as determined to “mess up” an election as Donald Trump.

Frank Luntz, a pollster and GOP strategist for the likes of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, posted a dig at the Republican candidate on social media on Saturday.

“I have never seen a candidate more determined to screw up an election,” Lutz wrote in response to Trump's promise to throw his political opponents in jail.

“Instead of talking about affordability and immigration security (the most important public issues), Trump is once again screaming about prosecuting his opponents.

“Message to Donald: Focus on helping voters, not yourself,” Lutz concluded.

The pollster's statement was a response to a confused comment made by the Republican presidential candidate on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening. Trump ranted about election manipulation and again accused the Democrats of election fraud in 2020 without being able to provide any evidence.

“Therefore, the 2024 election, where voting has just begun, will be subject to rigorous professional scrutiny and IF I WIN, the people who CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including lengthy prison sentences, so that this corruption of justice is not repeated. We cannot allow our country to degenerate any further into a third world nation, AND WE WILL NOT! Please note that these legal consequences extend to lawyers, political activists, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials. Those who behave unscrupulously will be tracked down, caught and prosecuted on a scale that has unfortunately never been seen before in our country.”

This post was Trump's latest claim that he was being cheated out of the election – even before the vast majority of votes had been cast.

Earlier this month, John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, warned that if Trump lost, he and his allies would use all sorts of tactics to sow doubt about the outcome.

“If they lose, they'll say everything went wrong. I would be surprised if Trump didn't try to incite an insurrection if he lost the election,” the mayor said.

Other experts warned that MAGA supporters would try to sow doubts about the election two months before the election.

David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research said The Guardian that “many false claims are disguised as attempts to change policy to improve election integrity, when in reality they are only aimed at sowing distrust in our system if Trump loses.”

“All of this is aimed at sowing claims that the election was stolen if Trump loses and sowing discord, chaos and potential violence,” he added.