Worse and worserer: New poll puts Biden approval at 37.8%, Harris at 27.8%
Democrats may want to replace both halves of the ticket in 2024.
President Biden’s job approval rating fell to a new low in a poll released Monday — but the news was even worse for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The USA Today/Suffolk University survey showed just 37.8 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s performance in office. By contrast, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of the president, whose ratings have been plunging since August.
Biden’s previous low job approval rating came in a Quinnipiac poll last month, which showed 38 percent of Americans approved of his performance, while 53 percent disapproved.
Meanwhile, a paltry 27.8 percent of respondents to the USA Today/Suffolk poll approved of the job Harris is doing as vice president, while 51.2 percent disapproved. More than a fifth of respondents (21 percent) said they were undecided about Harris, while just 3.2 percent said they hadn’t made up their minds about Biden.
Despite his plummeting numbers, Biden showed no signs of strain as he and first lady Jill Biden relaxed at their home in Delaware over the weekend. The president was also all smiles as he and his wife returned to the White House Monday morning.
The disastrous poll results for the White House were released exactly one year before the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats will battle to retain control of the House and Senate.
The poll showed that will be a difficult feat to accomplish.
If the election were held today, the survey found, 46 percent of Americans said they would vote for a Republican congressional candidate, while 38 percent said they would back a Democrat.
Forty-six percent of those surveyed also said Biden has done a worse job as president than expected, a number that included 16 percent of respondents who voted for him.
Among independent voters, 44 percent said Biden was performing worse than expected, while just 6 percent said he was doing better than expected. The president was 39 points underwater with independents, with just 28 percent approving of his job performance while 67 percent disapproved.
Most alarmingly for the administration, 64 percent of respondents said Biden should not run for a second term in 2024 — including 28 percent of Democrats.
As for former President Donald Trump, 58 percent are opposed to him running in 2024, a number that includes 24 percent of Republicans.
While Americans don’t seem eager for a rematch of the 2020 presidential race in three years, 44 percent said they would vote for Trump if it came to pass, while 40 percent would select Biden.
”I thought he did a great job then, and I know he’ll do a great job in the future,” Lynda Ensenat, 54, a Trump voter and independent insurance adjuster from New Orleans, told the pollsters. “There’s a whole lot going wrong in this society right now, and all the Democrat liberals — that’s what they’re 100 percent for.”
Ensenat added that Biden has “been wrong on absolutely everything he’s touched.”
Tony Emmi, a retired health care worker from Wilmington, Del., said he voted for the president, but believes he has failed to hold members of his party to account to ensure legislation gets passed.
“I think this country is moving in a direction that is dangerous,” said Emmi, 62.
The House passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan on Friday — 87 days after it was approved by the Senate.
The legislation had been caught up in bickering between progressive and moderate House members, with progressives demanding a vote on Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act before the House took up the infrastructure bill.
According to the poll, Americans support the infrastructure bill by nearly 2 to 1 (61 percent to 32 percent). The ranks of those who back the bill include 32 percent of Republicans.
The Build Back Better package doesn’t have the same level of support among Americans, with 44 percent opposing it and 47 percent backing it. Nearly a third of Americans (30 percent) believe the provisions in that bill would hurt their families more than help them, while 26 percent said they would help more than hurt and 31 percent said they would not have much effect.
As low as Biden’s numbers are, Congress’ are worse. Seventy-five percent of respondents disapprove of Capitol Hill lawmakers, while just 12 percent approve of them.
Congressional Democrats have a 29 percent favorable rating, with Republicans slightly higher at 35 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters between Nov. 3 and 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
