CNN Chief National Correspondent Jeff Zeleny said on Monday that voters are more concerned with President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy than they are about his campaign’s interest in highlighting press coverage of former President Donald Trump.
Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden by 0.8% in a national head-to-head matchup, according to the RealClearPolling average of polls, with the lead growing to 2.9% when independent candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are included. Zeleny questioned the Biden campaign’s decision to spend money focusing on Trump’s May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records by a Manhattan jury. (RELATED: CNN Reporter Claims Trump Supporters Calling America A Republic Is ‘An Attack On Democracy’)
“A lot of surveys after the Trump trial showed that it barely moved the needle at all,” Zeleny told “CNN News Central” host Brianna Keilar, pointing to polling that shows that inflation and the economy are the top issues on voters’ minds.
WATCH:
CNN Reporter Says Voters Want Biden To ‘Bring Down Inflation’ Instead Of Scolding Media Over Trump Coverage pic.twitter.com/ZzgzNQWJHz
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“The Biden campaign is using Trump’s convictions to make the argument that he is unacceptable. Trump is using his own convictions to make the argument that he is the victim of this big persecution,” Zeleny said. “So, we will see which side wins, but on the margin, with independent voters perhaps it could move the needle somewhat, likely not going to be a game changer though, because the election, after all, the economy is still listed as the number one issue in every survey, every voter conversation.”
On the economy, Biden’s average approval rating was only 40% in the RealClearPolling average, while only 35.5% gave him good marks on inflation.
“There’s no doubt now in the era of Donald Trump, who is a mastermind in terms of using the media in some respects and promoting himself, the Biden campaign is fighting back aggressively, more so than in any seven presidential campaigns I’ve covered, they are trying to game the refs here. They do it all the time, trying to point out that you‘re not being fair here so some of it is just the advent of social media,” Zeleny said. “Some of it’s infighting just for the sake of sort of getting people to think about the coverage little bit more. But the point is do voters care about this?”
“My thought is no, the voters I talk to in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, other swing states and beyond, they don’t necessarily… are even on line following how the candidates are being covered. So sure, there can be disputes about how much time President Biden gets on the air. Are we covering Trump too much? These things are always decisions every day. But the fighting that the Biden campaign has been doing with the media, it’s a bit unusual, but I don’t know that voters care or if they should care,” Zeleny said. “They are living their lives, get us a better economy, bring down inflation as opposed to tweeting out about something you said or I said on TV.”
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