President Joe Biden has closed his first year in the White House with a 56% disapproval rating, according to a new Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Thursday by AP.
The poll reflects that only 43% of Americans approve of Biden’s tenure and only 28% believe he should seek re-election in 2024.
The numbers contrast with a 59% popularity recorded in July for the president in another AP-NORC poll, which faded in the summer following a new wave of COVID-19 contagions and the turbulent military withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August.
Other problems contributed to Biden’s sagging approval ratings, including the persistence of the pandemic, rising inflation, battles in Congress to pass his economic and fiscal initiatives, and disagreements among Democratic Party lawmakers, AP notes.
Biden took office on a promise to double down on COVID-19 and his vaccination campaign was popular early in the year, but spikes caused by the delta and omicron variants frustrated a population hoping to return to normal as soon as possible.
Only 45% of AP-NORC respondents now approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, up from 57% in December and 66% in July.
There is pessimism also with economic management, mainly because of a rise in inflation to a 40-year high, even though experts say the U.S. economy is rebounding strongly from the pandemic-caused recession. Just 37 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, says AP.
The poll also addresses confidence about “Biden’s mental capacity to serve effectively as president.” On this point, nearly half said they have no confidence in Biden’s mental capacity or health, while the rest view his experience in politics positively.
Just 16% of respondents believe Biden’s presidency has brought the country closer together, while 43% believe the U.S. is more divided.
However, the new AP-NORC poll shows Biden better positioned than his predecessor Donald Trump at a similar point in his career. In February 2018, just 35% of Americans said they approved of Trump’s job.
The AP-NORC poll was conducted among 1,161 adults from Jan. 13-18, using an AmeriSpeak probability-based panel sample designed to be representative of the U.S. population, AP reported.
The margin of error for all respondents is plus minus 3.8 percentage points.
[Con información de AP]
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