Biden takes press to task over coverage of his polls

The media coverage of polls that show President Biden lagging behind former President Trump appears to be getting under the president’s skin.

While campaigning around the country, Biden has often complained to rooms full of donors about the coverage of polls, including how often the press focuses on only on low survey numbers while ignoring more favorable ones.

The White House and the Biden campaign maintain that it’s too far out from Election Day to rely on polls, but the president has clearly shown he’s annoyed with how the press has handled surveys of voters.

“While we probably haven’t read a lot about it, in the last few days, there have been several national polls showing us leading now,” Biden said during a campaign stop Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.

Biden received some positive polls this week. A Quinnipiac University poll, released Wednesday, found Biden polling at 48 percent support and Trump at 45 percent; when the question was expanded to include independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and third-party candidates Jill Stein and Cornel West, Trump barely pulls ahead of Biden, 39-38.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll published Tuesday found Biden trailing Trump among all voters in the seven battleground states but narrowing the gap, especially in the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Overall, an aggregation from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ of over 600 polls has Trump with a 0.9 percent lead over Biden.

Biden’s rhetoric about poll coverage has been consistent in recent weeks, in tone and even wording.

“While we probably haven’t read a lot about it, in the last few days, there has been five national polls. The press – well, I like the press – but they don’t talk about it very much. Five national polls having us leading since my State of the Union Address,” he said during a campaign stop in Houston last week.

In Dallas the day prior, he told the audience at a reception nearly the same thing.

A campaign aide told The Hill that their focus isn’t on polls in March, it’s on moving voters to the polls in November. 

The aide said Biden brings polls up during campaign events because if the campaign thinks coverage of the polls is bad and donors read the polls, it’s incumbent on Biden to point out that there is good polling.

“I think the president is responding to a truism of campaign media coverage, which is that negative polls, by their very nature, draw more press attention. It’s a necessary strategy for the president and his team to highlight positive numbers with donors to encourage and strengthen their support,” said Democratic communications strategist Katie Grant Drew.

The Biden campaign made March a major month for campaigning and fundraising in the weeks following the State of the Union address. The president has traveled to every battleground state and was set to raise a record-breaking $25 million in one night at a fundraiser in New York on Thursday.

And, its paid off, according to some polls, but not all.

A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll this week found Trump up just 2 points over Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head, with roughly 9 percent of voters undecided. Marist College surveys last week found Trump with 51 percent in Georgia and North Carolina, where Biden has 47 and 48 percent support, respectively. In other key states— Arizona and Nevada— an Emerson College Polling/KLAS-TV/The Hill poll found Trump up 4 points and 3 points, respectively.

Biden has also expressed the lack of significance of polls this far out from Election Day.

“By the way — and the press are all good guys in here — but they report a lot of polls,” Biden said at a campaign reception in Reno, Nev., on March 19. “The last four polls out, we're winning. OK? But guess what? None of these polls mean a damn thing this early on, so we just got to keep at it.”

Democrats were quick to defend his rhetoric though, saying he’s right to criticize the coverage focused on negative polls.

“The president’s poll number numbers are moving in the right direction. He is right,” said David Castagnetti, who was top liaison to Congress for former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a Biden ally, noted that Trump talks about polls during his rallies and said, “the media rarely does a story about a plane that lands safely.”

“President Biden has a very good story to share with voters that has largely been ignored by the press. Record job growth, economic strength, infrastructure expansion, and a strengthened social structure are all the kinds of things that the media ought to be focusing upon,” he added. “Oh, and unlike his challenger, no indictments.”

Biden also has stepped up his hits against Trump. 

On Thursday, he shared a video comparing his many campaign stops with Trump’s golf hobby. His campaign has deemed Trump “Broke Dom” over his lagging fundraising numbers and criticized him over his financial troubles in the spotlight from the hush money court case in New York.

Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official, said Biden’s concerns with media coverage echo that of other Democrats this cycle.

“Is it a fair criticism? Nothing is fair about this election,” he said. “Joe Biden is being a good politician and voicing what many Democrats feel. Dems feel that the narrative and the polls that Joe Biden is behind are wrong and inaccurate. But the reality is probably not much better— it's close, going to be a nail bitter, and won by a handful of votes.”

Labor Day is a marker for election cycles to see if the polls shift, especially when voters who may not be tuned in yet could get engaged. The Biden campaign has been eying those voters, who either haven’t tuned in or have no interest in voting at all this November considering it’s a 2020 rematch, viewing them as persuadable after Labor Day.

“My guess is that we’ll see a gradual increase in Biden’s lead over Trump throughout the spring and summer. Biden can credibly tout job growth and economic strength, while Trump has to schedule campaign rallies around court appearances,” Carney said.