There have been numerous polls released in the past week, and they have not been kind to President Joe Biden, including and especially when it comes to the chaos in Afghanistan.
After his Sunday remarks on Tropical Storm Henri and Afghanistan, President Joe Biden took a select amount of questions from the press, one which discussed a CBS/YouGov poll released earlier that same day. The president claimed he hadn't seen it. If he'd like to continue living in a fantasy world, it's probably for the best that he did not.
The poll shows that Americans no longer find Biden to be "competent," "focused," or "effective." Only 49 percent, 48 percent, and 47 percent do, respectively.
A CBS News write-up tries to spin the results, with its headline reading "Biden job approval falls; handling of troop removal is negative but support for withdrawal remains — CBS News poll."
The title is indeed accurate, but that Americans still support withdrawing from Afghanistan ought not to be the takeaway, no matter how much Biden may wish for it to be so.
Conservatives know what true oppression looks like and don’t waste our time and privilege claiming it here. We know that thousands of Afghan women would do anything to come here, and will speak up when our president cruelly abandons them with no time to plan.
— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) August 21, 2021
If the situation in Afghanistan weren’t so chaotic, countless women would’ve have time to plan and safely escape. For 20 years we told them we had their backs, and are now nowhere to be found. Bottom line.
— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) August 21, 2021
Sixty-three percent approve of the U.S. removing troops from Afghanistan. Among the 37 percent who did not approve, 70 percent say it's because "The removal of U.S. troops should have been handled better." Only 47 percent approved of how Biden handled the removal of troops.
A strong plurality, at 44 percent, responded that they think the removal has gone "very badly." Even worse is that two-thirds, at 67 percent say they don't think "Joe Biden has a clear plan for evacuating American citizens from Afghanistan."
Biden's overall support has fallen. In this particular poll, he's at 50-50 approve and disapprove when it comes to his job performance as president. A plurality of respondents, at 36 percent, say they "strongly disapprove."
It's interesting to note that, for how much of a "unifying" president Biden aims to be, he got his lowest remarks in that regard when it comes to respondents being asked if such a word describes Biden. Forty-three percent said "unifying" describes Biden, while 57 percent said it did not.
As the write-up highlights:
Public reaction to what's happened there is decidedly negative, with Americans now fearing wider repercussions from a heightened threat of terrorism. Back home, the public weighs in with rough judgments on President Biden — not only for his handling of it, but with his overall presidential approval rating dropping substantially, and broader views of his qualities like effectiveness and competence taking hits along with it.
...
He takes a big hit among independents. They'd given him positive marks in July, but now, more than half disapprove of how he's handling both withdrawing from Afghanistan and his job overall. His overall approval is down within his own Democratic Party — it's still high, in the 80s, but off its highs in the 90s. And while he had enjoyed a bit of Republican approval through the summer, that has dropped.
Along with the drop in approval, there's been a more specific impact on qualities the public sees in Mr. Biden. He'd been positive on qualities like competence, focus, and effectiveness — now those are each at least slightly net negative.
The write-up notes that the survey was conducted with 2,142 U.S. adults, between August 18-20, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 points.
On Sunday, "Meet the Press" discussed the results of an NBC poll released that day. In his write-up for NBC, Mark Murray noted in his subheadline that "Biden’s overall job approval falls below 50 percent for the first time in the NBC News poll."
The poll results show that Biden has as 49 approval rating, with 48 percent disapproving. Biden's approval ratings have dropped in the issues of the coronavirus, falling from 69 percent support in April to 53 percent in August. Support for how Biden has handled the economy fell from 52 percent to 47 percent in that same time period.
A mere 25 percent of respondents support how Biden has handled "the situation in Afghanistan," which was also highlighted in Murray's subheadline.
But the above issues are hardly the only which way in Biden has fallen significantly. In April, a plurality of respondents, at 29 percent, had a "very positive" regard for Biden. In August, a plurality have a "very negative" regard, and at a much stronger plurality, by 36 percent.
The pollsters, however, claim a takeaway is to forget about Afghanistan:
The survey findings demonstrate the public has grown more pessimistic about the coronavirus since April, the country remains split over whether Covid-19 vaccines should be mandated and an electorate is divided over which political party should control Congress after the 2022 midterms.
It’s all produced a “summer of discontent” for Biden, said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
“The promise of April has led to the peril of August,” Horwitt said, arguing that Covid — more than Afghanistan — has dented Biden’s numbers. “It is the domestic storm, Covid’s delta wave, that is causing more difficulties at this stage here at home and for President Biden.”
McInturff agrees.
“The best way to understand this poll is to forget Afghanistan,” he said.
We'll see about that.
Murray likewise highlights that America is "A deeply divided nation."
This poll was conducted with 1,000 adults from August 14-17. It has a margin of error at plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.