While the public trusts President Trump more than the media on the evolving coronavirus crisis, it’s largely split on the performance of the press, the coverage of the crisis, and bias.
In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, Trump emerged as more trusted than the media and Congress on the issue. When asked, “Who do you trust more in the current coronavirus crisis,” 35% said Trump, 30% said “the average reporter,” 18% did not know, and 17% said “the average member of Congress.”
The same survey found that likely voters are also divided on the media’s coverage of the virus. Some 53% give the media good to excellent grades, while 45% graded them fair to poor.
And on the media’s bias, 43% said that the media is “trying to hurt Trump” with its stories, while 49% feel the media is trying to cover the story in an unbiased manner.
But among Republicans, that surged to 65%. For Democrats, just 21% agreed.
The president’s war with the media, which started during the 2016 campaign, has been on display at the daily virus task force press conferences. Yesterday, for example, he brushed off a reporter with an “enough” when she repeatedly pressed him on an issue he felt he had answered.
Media pundits have been calling on reporters to boycott the press conferences, calling them campaign stunts.
The media has also tried to build up spats into major battles, especially between the Trump and the respected doctors he appears with, notably Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Several outlets suggested that a Trump retweet on Monday was a sign that he planned to fire Fauci, but the president dismissed it, and Fauci, with a glare, rejected a reporter’s suggestion that he was being pressured to water down his concerns over the crisis.
“Everything I do is voluntarily,” Fauci said. “Please, don’t even imply that.”
