President Joe Biden‘s approval rating held steady until he decided to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.
Though Americans tend to support bringing soldiers home, chaotic scenes from Kabul and other places around the war-torn country appear to have made many reconsider their position on ending so-called endless wars.
Fierce criticism from members of both parties and the vast majority of the press certainly didn’t help Biden’s political standing. In fact, according to one new poll, his approval rating is at an all-time low.
Biden’s Approval Rating
In Morning Consult‘s latest poll — which was conducted Aug. 27-29 among 15,623 registered voters — 48 percent of respondents said they approve of Biden’s performance in office, while 49 percent said they disapprove.
This is a record low in the president’s net approval rating.
Notably, the share of Democrats who "strongly approve" of Biden’s performance in the White House fell by seven percentage points, to 47 percent — also an all-time low.
This could prove to be a major issue for Biden and the Democratic Party going forward.
Independents, Republicans
A majority of independent voters, 52 percent of them, said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, while 41 percent said they approve.
As for Republicans, a staggering 76 percent said they "strongly disapprove" of the job he is doing as president.
"The political ramifications of a foreign policy issue that emerges more than a year before the midterm elections are impossible to parse, but the crisis that’s unfolded over the past several days appears to have compounded Biden’s growing problem with independent voters, whose net approval rating for Biden has been either even or underwater in daily tracking since the first week of July."
Insiders Claim Biden’s Mistakes Will Cost Democrats
According to Republican strategists, Biden’s messy Afghan withdrawal will cost Democrats in the 2022 midterms.
They claim that the GOP has finally unified, after spending months trying to adjust to the reality of Trump being out of the White House and Democrats controlling Congress.
"Kind of taken on the whole, I think you could make the argument that this month was really the month that the wheels started to come off of the Biden administration," is how one GOP strategist put it, saying that the Biden administration is facing a "real political crisis."
2024 Election
It remains unclear if Biden, who is 78 years old, will run for reelection in 2024. Many expect Kamala Harris, who is currently his vice president, to take over.
Several prominent Republicans have expressed interest in running for president, but Trump remains the clear favorite to win the nomination.
The former president has repeatedly signaled that he wants to launch a comeback White House bid. Most recently, as Politico reported, he announced plans to visit Iowa, the state that votes first in presidential elections.
