Despite Donald Trump's "bad week" – and Hillary Clinton's rise in the polls – "the deal's not closed yet" if the GOP nominee gets "back on message" and stops "playing defense," pollster John Zogby told Newsmax TV.
The 2016 election is as close and competitive as the past four presidential races, Zogby, Newsmax contributor, senior partner at John Zigby Strategies, and author of "We Are Many, We Are One," said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"Donald Trump has had a bad week, bad debate performance," he said. "But . . . the last four presidential elections were very close and very competitive throughout most of the campaign cycle, and we saw ebbs and flows."
"So we're probably seeing an element of that right now," he added. "The deal's not closed yet."
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Zogby added Trump's polling has "stayed fairly static" in the "39-42 percent range," and he doubts the New York Times revelation of Trump's nearly billion-dollar legal tax write-off is likely to hurt him.
"But he's got to get back on his message; he can't be playing defense," Zogby warned. "Don't get off on other things. Just keep saying 'it's about change, it's about change, I can do better.' . . . This is the time for Trump now to get focused on message.
"What he doesn't want to have happen is he becomes the issue instead of [Hillary Clinton]," he added.
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