President Biden’s job approval rating keeps falling as inflation keeps rising.
A new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll released Monday showed Biden’s approval rating at 41 percent, a new low for the survey.
By contrast, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance, including 44 percent who say they “strongly disapprove” of the 46th president.
The number of respondents who said they “strongly disapproved” of the president was up six percentage points from the most recent Marist poll, published Dec. 9.
Monday’s survey presents almost a mirror image of Marist’s findings from mid-May, when 53 percent approved of Biden’s work while 41 percent disapproved.
Since then, the White House has been buffeted by the highest rate of inflation in nearly 40 years, a resurgence of coronavirus cases because of the Omicron variant, a stalled legislative agenda in Congress, and the aftermath of the botched US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“There’s lots of uncertainty out there,” Marist College Institute of Public Opinion director Lee Miringoff told PBS. “He’s being hit for lack of leadership. He’s being hit for the fatigue of the pandemic and concerns about inflation.”
The poll showed Biden underwater among respondents of every household income, age and racial demographic. Perhaps most alarmingly for the White House and congressional Democrats, 65 percent of Latinos said they disapproved of Biden’s job performance, while just 33 percent said they approved.
Similarly, nearly two-thirds of self-described independents (66 percent) said they disapproved of Biden’s efforts, while just 29 percent approved.
“The independents were the major difference” in this poll, Miringoff said. “The one good thing [for Biden] about losing independents and not doing as well with Democrats is those are groups you can win back.”
Among the few groups that Biden scored well with in the poll are college graduates (54 percent approval, 44 percent disapproval), white female college graduates (59 percent approval, 40 percent disapproval), voters age 74 and up (48 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval) and suburbanites (49 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval).
Suburban woman, a group that helped propel Biden to the White House in 2020, appear to be sticking with him so far — 57 percent approve of his job performance, while 41 percent disapprove. Biden won 59 percent of that demographic’s vote a year ago.
The poll surveyed 1,400 adults between Dec. 11 and 13, before Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced that he is a “no” vote on the president’s $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, a crucial part of the administration’s domestic agenda.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.