Yahoo News/YouGov: Most Americans heard a lot about President Trump last week, but not Joe Biden

Linley SandersData Journalist
March 30, 2020, 6:40 PM GMT+0

This poll is a part of the Yahoo News/YouGov Poll partnership and was cited in the Yahoo News article “59 percent of Americans say Trump's Easter timeline is 'too soon' to restart the economy.”

President Donald Trump dominated American news sources last week—but his likely Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was largely absent. According to the latest Yahoo News/YouGov Poll, about three in five Americans (61%) heard “a lot” about President Trump last week, while just 17 percent heard “a lot” about Biden.

While President Trump was among the most prevalent figures in the media last week, not all Democrats were absent. Most Americans (61%) heard “a lot” or “some” about the Democratic New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, who is airing regular public briefings. New York is considered a key COVID-19 zone in the United States because it has the most cases recorded.

About one-third of Americans (34%) have heard “a lot” from Doctor Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. About three in 10 Americans (31%) have seen or heard a lot about Vice President Mike Pence, the member of the Trump Administration heading up the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Pence and Fauci make regular appearances at President Trump’s press conferences on the coronavirus, which most Americans are following. About three-quarters of Americans (74%) have listened to at least one of the COVID-19 press conferences. That number is even higher among registered voters—four in five (81%) say they have listened to the president’s COVID-19 briefing.

Though President Trump was present in American lives last week, he was not given the highest ratings from those who heard from him. About a quarter of Americans (25%) who have heard about President Trump in the last week rate his performance as “excellent.” About one-third (36%) rated it “good” or “fair.” About two in five (39%) say it was “poor.”

In contrast, four in five (80%) Americans who have heard about Dr. Fauci rate his COVID-19 performance as “excellent” or “good.” A majority (69%) of Americans who have heard from Governor Cuomo rate his coronavirus performance as “excellent” or “good.” Among those who have heard about Biden, about two in five (39%) consider his performance to be “excellent” or great.” Three in 10 rated Biden’s performance as “poor.”

Related: One in five Republicans prioritize the economy over American lives

See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Yahoo News/YouGov Poll

Methodology: This Yahoo! News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,579 U.S. adult residents interviewed online between March 25-26, 2020. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US residents based upon their age, gender, race, education, and voter registration. The margin of error (MOE) for estimates based on the full sample was 3.1 percent.

Image: Getty