A majority of Americans say President Joe Biden’s first year in office was a failure, following foreign and domestic policy failures such as the Afghanistan withdrawal, inflation, and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
A new poll, conducted by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll found that 56% of respondents said Biden’s first year in office was a failure, while just 39% said it was a success, NPR reported.
“What’s more, 54% said he’s not fulfilling his campaign promises, and 52% said he has done more to divide the country than unite it, despite uniting the country being a pillar of Biden’s 2020 presidential run,” the outlet noted.
Even 66% of Independents said Biden’s first year was a failure, a number that does not bode well for Democrats heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
“The president is clinging to just a 39% overall approval rating, a 36% approval for his handling of the economy and 47% for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 30% of respondents said they think the U.S. is headed in the right direction, days before Biden is set to give his first formal State of the Union address,” NPR reported. “All are the worst marks of his presidency in the survey.”
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told NPR that these “are sort of rock-bottom numbers” for Biden, adding that “It’s about as low as you’re going to see him.”
At the top of American’s concerns is rising inflation, with 38% saying they think the issue should be Biden’s top priority. The issue leads others by far, with the pandemic tying with voting laws – both at 11% – as the second highest-priority. Foreign policy and violent crime followed closely behind, each with 10%.
The poll was released at around the same time as another poll from the Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris Poll, which found that 62% of American voters believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if President Donald Trump were still in office, according to The Hill. Just 38% believe Putin would still have invaded if Trump were president.
“A majority of Americans polled — 59 percent — also said they believed that the Russian president moved on Ukraine because Putin saw weakness in President Biden.