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President Biden, who has suffered a constant decline in the polls over the last few weeks, reached a new low with a recent Gallup poll showing that only 43% of Americans support the president. 53% of those polled disapprove of Biden. This is the lowest approval rating for Biden since taking office on January 20.
The poll, conducted between September 1-17, is one of the first polls made after the disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left the entire country in the hands of the Taliban and was the target of a deadly terrorist attack that left 13 U.S. soldiers dead in Kabul. Gallup interviewed 1,005 adults and the poll has a margin of error of 4%.
Independents have been the key constituency that has decisively turned against the president with 56% disapproving of the job of the Biden Administration and only 37% approving of his job. To put matters into perspective, only in June 2021 did 55% of Independents surveyed by Gallup thought that the president was doing a good job, almost a 20 points drop in just a few months.
Democrats and Republicans have, expectedly, retained their partisan opinions on the job performance of the President with 90% of Democrats approving o Biden and 93% of Republicans disapproving of the job the President is doing.
Biden’s approval on the issues is also bad
The president’s low approval rating is not only confined to one single poll, as a recent The Economist/YouGov poll conducted between September 18th-21st also shows that only 43% of Americans approve of the job performance of the President, although the percentage of respondents disapproving is smaller than the Gallup poll with 46% of those surveyed thinking the president is doing a bad job, which is actually one of the few good news the YouGov poll had for the Democrats.
Biden’s approval ratings are also very low when respondents were asked about the way the President is handling specific issues. The president had net disapproval on his handling of:, the economy, crime, and the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Most Americans blame Biden for doing a bad job in the messy withdrawal from Afghanistan, with 50% thinking he did a bad job and only 36% of respondents approving his handling over the crisis, with a 55% majority of the key independent bloc disapproving of the job of the commander-in-chief.
In the always crucial issue of jobs and the economy only 43% of adults saying that the President is doing a good job, while 44% think he is doing a bad job. Furthermore, only 26% of Americans think that the economy is doing either good or excellent, while 34% of respondents saying the economy is doing poorly and 35% saying the economy is currently in a “fair” state.
Americans also disapprove of Biden’s job over crime, with a mere 37% of Americans thinking that the Biden Administration is doing an effective job in the issue, while 44% think he is doing a bad job.
One of the few issues where Biden’s approvals overcome his disapprovals is in that of the handling of COVID-19. With 46% of respondents thinking that the President has done a good job over the pandemic response while 42% think he has not done a good job. Although these are certainly better news for Biden and his Democrats, it is important to point out that one of the stronger points for Biden throughout the year, with the President having a favorable 52/37 split on this issue in May of 2021. Meaning that his overall pandemic response perception has decreased quite significantly.
Biden’s position is slipping with Latinos and is viewed as weak by most Americans
Another headache for Democrat strategists is the growing weakness of Biden in the Latino vote. The latest YouGov/Economist poll shows that while more Hispanics approve of the President than not, the gap is getting increasingly small, with 42% of Latinos approving of the President while 39% disapprove of him, a 3-point gap that is near the 2.9% margin of error of the poll.
Hispanics are also divided on the way that the President is handling the issues, with 43% thinking the President is not doing a good job handling the economy while 41% think he is. Most Latinos think the president is also doing a bad job handling crime, with 45% disapproving of his job while only 31% approving.
Finally, and probably one of the worst data points for the Democrats, is that most Americans view Biden as a weak leader. 38% of Americans view Biden as a very weak leader, 15% see him as somewhat weak, 30% consider him somewhat strong and only 17% think he is a very strong leader. In total, 53% of Americans think the president is a weak leader.
While Democrats hoped that the Afghanistan debacle would only show a temporary dip in the polls that would correct itself in the future, the polling appears to show that Biden’s position is not improving at all.
Daniel is a Political Science and Economics student from the University of South Florida. He worked as a congressional intern to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) from January to May 2020. He also is the head of international analysis at Politiks // Daniel es un estudiante de Cs Políticas y Economía en la Universidad del Sur de la Florida. Trabajo como pasante legislativo para el Representate Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) desde enero hasta mayo del 2020. Daniel también es el jefe de análisis internacional de Politiks.