Two polls released to mark the anniversary of President Biden’s inauguration Thursday show Americans give him poor marks for his handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, relations with Russia and overall competence — with one survey finding less than half of Democrats want him to seek re-election.
Only 43 percent of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, according to the polls from NBC News and the Associated Press-NORC, with 54 percent disapproving of Biden in the NBC poll and 56 percent giving him a thumbs-down in the AP survey.
In fact, Americans are so fed up that just 28 percent tell the AP they want Biden to run again in 2024 — including only 48 percent of Democrats.
It’s a far cry from July, when the AP-NORC poll showed Biden with a job approval rating of 59 percent. That number slipped to 50 percent a month later and has continued to slide amid the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal, a surge in coronavirus cases, and a stymied domestic legislative agenda.
In the NBC poll, Biden’s 43 percent approval rating dropped 10 percentage points from the 53 percent favorability the president enjoyed in April.
The NBC survey also found that a mere 15 percent of Americans “strongly approve” of the president’s job performance compared to 43 percent who “strongly disapprove.” Only 5 percent say Biden’s presidency has gone better than expected, the lowest figure for any president dating back to Bill Clinton in 1994.
“This poll would have to be described as bleak, discouraging and truly terrible,” Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies told NBC.
Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates agreed, saying: “A year into his presidency, Joe Biden’s standing with the American people is diminished, and he is a smaller figure than he was when he entered the White House.”
Both polls were released one day after Biden held a disastrous 112-minute news conference that was most notable for appearing to give Russian President Vladimir Putin permission to invade Ukraine and that prompted the White House to issue a flurry of clarifications on the matter.
When asked about his poor approval numbers Wednesday, Biden flatly stated, “I don’t believe the polls” after claiming that “I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”
“You guys talk about how nothing has happened,” the president complained to reporters near the end of the Q&A period. “I don’t think there’s been much on any incoming president’s plate that’s been a bigger menu than the plate I had given to me. I’m not complaining. I knew that running in. And the fact of the matter is, we got an awful lot done — an awful lot done, and there’s more to get done.”
The AP poll showed that 47 percent of the respondents were “not very confident or not confident at all” that Biden has the mental capability to serve as president, compared to just 28 percent who say they are “extremely confident or very confident.”
Asked by the NBC pollsters to rate how competent and effective Biden is on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most competent and effective, 42 percent of respondents answered “1,” while only 15 percent chose “5.”
Gary Cameron, 66, of Midwest City, Okla., told the AP that the 79-year-old Biden’s age and his verbal gaffes make him question whether the president has the ability or energy to lead the country in times of crisis.
“Whenever he does a speech on television, in your mind, you’re thinking, ‘God, is this guy even going to get through this speech?’” Cameron, an independent who voted for President Donald Trump in 2020, told the wire service.
The NBC poll also found that 50 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of relations with Russia, while 37 percent approve.
The survey further shows that 53 percent disapprove of the president’s response to the pandemic, 60 percent pan his handling of the economy and 54 percent reject his approach to foreign policy.
The AP poll also found that 54 percent disapprove of Biden’s COVID-19 response, 62 percent dislike his handling of the economy and 56 percent are critical of his foreign policy.
The NBC News survey polled 1,000 adults between Jan. 14 and 18 and has a plus/minus 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.
The AP-NORC survey polled 1,161 adults between Jan. 13 and 18 and has a plus/minus 3.8 percentage-point margin of error.
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