Islam Times - Biden Approval Hits Historic Low, Poll Says

Islam Times - US President Joe Biden’s approval rating has hit a new low as he wraps up his first year in office, according to a new poll.

Just 41% of Americans say they approve of the job Biden is doing as president, according to a NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll released Monday – the lowest the pollsters have recorded during his presidency, US News reported.

The poll, conducted from Dec. 11-13, coincides with a surge in coronavirus cases, as the nation is once again grappling with a new variant, while rising consumer prices mark another abnormal holiday season. Meanwhile, the president’s congressional clout is in question as his legislative agenda stalls on Capitol Hill.

Approval of the US president is unsurprisingly low among Republicans, at 5%. But even among independents, just 29% approve of the job Biden is doing, while 88% of Democrats approve. The overall results are down slightly from a poll released Dec. 9 and stand 10 percentage points lower than when Biden first took office in January.

Amid omicron, the White House is in the precarious position of quelling what Dr. Anthony Fauci has called an “inevitable” surge in coronavirus cases, while avoiding implementing increased restrictions that threaten to make the administration less popular among a pandemic-weary public.

But as omicron spreads, countries around the world are imposing restrictions, with European nations in particular enacting lockdowns, creating fear that economic growth could be hampered, although the US economy is currently showing strong consumer demand and steady improvement in the labor market. Still, various recent polls have shown inflation as the primary concern of Americans – even beating out the coronavirus.

And in another blow to the Biden administration, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia shocked the political world on Sunday by saying he could not vote for Biden’s Build Back Better Act, leaving Democrats unable to pass the massive spending bill.

The White House called Manchin’s opposition to the social spending plan a “sudden and inexplicable reversal of his position,” delivering a frank and scathing assessment of where the Biden administration thought they were in negotiations.