Fox News ignores major infrastructure victory for Biden as it claims he's done 'nothing'

During a segment on the Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends” on Monday, co-host Steve Doocy said, just two days after Joe Biden scored a major victory with the passing of the $1.2 billion infrastructure plan in Congress, that the president “should be riding high on something, but he’s got nothing.”

In a discussion about a Today/Suffolk poll from Sunday showing a dip in approval for Biden (38%), Doocy also said, “When you look at all the stuff that is going on with Joe Biden, none of it is working.” But Doocy neglected to mention the poll did not incorporate key victories for the Biden administration, including the infrastructure bill.

On Friday night, the House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, well known to be one of Biden’s key legislative priorities. The legislation has already passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by Biden this week.

However, the poll cited on Fox as proof that Biden has “got nothing” was conducted between Nov. 3-5, before the infrastructure bill was passed. Additionally, the poll looks to have been largely conducted before the October jobs report was released. That report showed economic renewal under Biden, with 531,000 jobs added to the economy and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%.

The poll also showed strong support for the provisions in the infrastructure bill, with 61% of those responding to the poll saying they back the legislation, including one-third of Republicans who were surveyed. Other polls conducted over the past few months have shown strong public support for the infrastructure package’s provisions, with overwhelming support from Democrats and independents, including some support from Republicans.

Fox News has repeatedly attacked Biden-backed infrastructure legislation, with one host, Dagen McDowell, describing it in September as the likely “end of the American dream” if it became law.

Since being sworn into office in January 2021, Biden has signed into law the American Rescue Plan, which provided $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, and his administration has also seen the deployment of more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine across the country.

“We took a monumental step forward as a nation,” Biden said on Saturday, praising the bill’s passage. Biden described the legislation as “a once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to create millions of jobs modernizing our infrastructure — our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a whole range of things — to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity.”

Biden’s legislative victory on infrastructure comes after former President Donald Trump repeatedly discussed the need for such legislation throughout his one four-year term, which he never delivered on.

In polling averages from FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s overall approval remains ahead of Trump’s at this point in his presidency. Biden’s average approval is 42.8%, while Trump’s was at 37.7%. According to Gallup, Trump’s approval rating peaked in early 2020 at 49%, while Biden reached his highest approval rating of 57% during the first 100 days of his presidency.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.