More than 60 percent of American voters believe the mainstream media protects President Joe Biden by not asking tough questions, according to a new survey.

The Zogby Poll also found that nearly half of U.S. voters feel the president is taking credit for actions made by former President Donald Trump.

Asked if the country was headed in the right direction under Biden, 51% responded it was, and 43% said things were on the wrong track.

When asked if the mainstream media protects Biden by not asking him tough policy questions about issues such as the national debt, 62% agree strongly. Only 27% disagree (strongly and somewhat disagreed combined), while 11% said they were not sure.

Even 55% of Democrats agree the mainstream media protects Biden, with 34% disagreeing, Among Republicans, 80% agree and 15% disagree. Independents were split 50% (agree) to 34% (disagree).

Further breakdowns when asked if the mainstream media protects Biden were 67% (agree) to 27% (disagree) among big-city voters; 69% to 21% among rural voters; 71% to 21% among weekly Walmart shoppers; and 71% to 23 % among weekly Amazon shoppers.

Zogby said when the “national debt” was replaced by “border crisis” in the question, the results were similar.

Some of the groups who agree the most about the mainstream media coverage are Catholics (71% agree, 23% disagree), and voters who earned the most – $150K+ (74% to 21%).

Respondents also believe Biden’s communications staff is protecting him by preventing him from talking to the media more. A majority (59%) agree, 30% disagree, and 11% said they were not sure.

Respondents were also asked: “Has President Biden taken credit for some of President Trump’s own actions, such as, vaccine rollout/distribution and the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, or did President Biden achieve these feats on his own?”

A total of 49% said Biden was taking credit for Trump’s actions, 37% said Biden achieved the feats on his own and 14% were not sure.

Trump’s administration established Operation Warp Speed, passed the first stimulus bill, and was also first to publicly call for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Sub-groups who most thought Biden was taking credit for Trump’s accomplishments were:

• Republicans (76%)
• Rural voters (67%)
• Voters aged 65+ (61%)
• Men (57%)
• White voters (55%)
• Baby Boomers (55%),
• Weekly Walmart shoppers (54%)
• Voters whose annual household income is $150K+ (53%)
• Voters living in the South (52%) and Central Great Lakes regions (53%)

Sub-groups most likely to think Biden achieved these feats on his own were
Democrats (57%)

• African Americans (52%)
• Urban women (50%).
• Large city voters (46%)
• Small city voters (44%)
• East and West region voters (42%)
• Voters aged 18-29 (40%) and 18-24 (41%)
• Women (41%)

Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 868 likely U.S. voters May 26-27, 2021. The party breakdown of the voters in this survey was: 37% Democrat, 35% Republican and 28% Independent/unaffiliated.

Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 868 is +/- 3.3 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.