‘Get Your Act Together!’ Frank Luntz Spars With Joe Kernen After Squawk Box Host Defends George Santos’s ‘Resume Padding’
TV pollster Frank Luntz sparred with Squawk Box host Joe Kernen over George Santos’s alleged faked resume and its implications on the House Speaker bid by Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy finds himself in a very tough position as he tries to whip up votes for his bid to become Speaker of the House with a narrow Republican majority in the 2023 Congress set to be sworn in later on Tuesday.
Santos’s future as a member of Congress has been called into question as many of his claims as a candidate have proven to be either gross exaggerations or flat-out lies. Santos’s vote is critical for McCarthy’s speakership plans, all of which were the context of the discussion on CNBC Tuesday morning.
In many ways, Luntz is the perfect guest to discuss McCarthy’s political endeavors, not just because they are old friends but even former roommates, as reported by CNBC. So Luntz’s insights went well beyond his typical inside-the-beltway point of view on this story.
The rather mundane interview became a bit prickly after Kernan effectively defended Santos’s resume exaggerations with a curious equivalency by comparing to other politicians who he said were also guilty of “resume padding,” naming Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal as examples.
“It is hard to throw stones. As far as … you go back to the ’70s for Biden, I’m not sure he knows if he is lying. That’s the problem at a certain point,” Kernan continued. “He never talked about Hunter or any business.”
“Guys. Don’t do this, don’t do this,” Luntz shot back.
“Oh, yeah. Mr. ‘Come Together,’ Kernan mocked his guest before blaming him partly for the current divisiveness that Luntz has recently started rallying against. “You stirred up a lot of stuff over the years, Frank. This is the country we’re in right now, Frank. I’m sorry. You and Arthur Brooks can hold hands and sing Kumbaya.”
“You have things that the public desperately needs. We have a crisis at the border. We have a retirement savings crisis to fix right now. We have inflation that is still out of control, and we are arguing over something that happened, in some cases, 20 or 30, or 40 years ago,” Luntz pushed back.
“And we started with Santos,” Kernan replied. “You talked about Santos. It is all fair game.”
“Our viewers want results. They want aspects of the economy to be addressed. They want foreign policy to be addressed. You are arguing over something that is minute. Get your act together,” Luntz concluded.
Watch the above via CNBC.
