Voters See Biden More Responsive to Media Than Trump

Voters think Joe Biden cares more about what the media thinks than President Trump does but don’t see either man as media-focused as Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters believe what voters think matters more to Trump than what the media thinks. Thirty-five percent (35%) say he cares more about what the media thinks. This compares to 55% and 33% respectively in July 2019. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

By comparison, 50% say Biden cares more about what voters think, but 41% feel he puts the media first.

Just 34% of voters, however, believe the average member of Congress cares more about what voters think. A plurality (49%) still says the average congressional representative puts what the media thinks first, although that’s down from 53% last year. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted December 7-8, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Biden voters remain far bigger cheerleaders of the media than Trump voters are.

Men and middle-aged voters say Biden is a lot more concerned about what the media thinks than Trump is. Women and voters in other age groups disagree.

Blacks see Trump as much more media responsive than Biden, but whites and other minority voters don’t see it that way. White voters also see Congress as much more media-obsessed than blacks and other minorities do.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans and unaffiliated voters by a 45% to 38% margin say Trump puts what voters think first, but only 37% of Democrats agree. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Democrats say what matters more to Biden is what voters think, a view shared by only 26% of GOP voters. Unaffiliateds are evenly divided.

When it comes to the average member of Congress, 61% of Republicans and 55% of unaffiliated voters say what the media thinks come first. By a 49% to 33% margin, Democrats disagree.

Seventy-five percent (75%)of Republicans and a plurality (47%) of voters not affiliated with either major party expected the media to try to help Biden more than Trump during the campaign. Only 29% of Democrats agreed.

Voters said in mid-September that the media was a lot more interested in selling Biden’s positions than it was in Trump’s. Controversy was the key when it comes to media coverage of Trump, they said.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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