(Headline USA) Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings on the media, claiming this weekend that it hadn’t done enough to show voters all the “good that is coming their way” from Biden’s policies.
Buttigieg made the comment during an interview on Saturday with MSNBC. He was asked about the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, which found that 47% of voters strongly disapprove of Biden.
“Here’s the thing: When something is uncontroversially and unambiguously good, it gets less attention,” claimed the former South Bend, Ind., mayor.
“But that just means we have our work cut out for us,” he continued. “I’m not accepting that as a reason why these things are going to get less attention. We need to make sure people understand the good that is coming their way because of the president’s leadership.”
He added that the media should be doing more to highlight Biden’s infrastructure bill for starters, vowing to hit the campaign trail himself to draw more attention to the law’s benefits.
Buttigieg isn’t the first administration official to dismiss Biden’s record-low approval ratings. Vice President Kamala Harris likewise insisted earlier this year that voters disapproved of Biden because they didn’t know enough about his “historic accomplishments.”
“I think what the American people want most in their leaders is that we actually get things done, and we have done it,” Harris said in a January interview with former Today show anchor Katie Couric. “We haven’t taken adequate credit for it, frankly, and we’ve got to do a better job of getting the word out about what we have accomplished and who did it.”
Biden has also complained about negative press coverage. When asked about polls that show him losing to former President Donald Trump in several key swing states, for example, Biden snapped at reporters and claimed they were looking at the “wrong” polls.
And in an interview with MSNBC, Biden said he believed his poor polling was a direct result of “negative” media attention.
“All they’ve heard is negative news for three years. Everything is negative,” Biden claimed. “I’m not being critical of the press, but you turn on the television—the only way you’re gonna get a hit is if there’s something negative, you know.”
