In the remarks he's given on withdrawing from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden has tried to frame the issue as being about how he will not send another president to have to have troops in Afghanistan. "I’m now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth," he's said. A poll, however, shows that the American people aren't confident that we won't have to return to Afghanistan.
#PresidentBiden underwater on job approval and handling of key issues; more than 6 in 10 Americans believe U.S. troops will return to #Afghanistan https://t.co/UWCBQttYmd
— Quinnipiac University Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) September 14, 2021
A Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday found that a majority of U.S. adults believe "American troops will have to return to Afghanistan to fight terrorism," by 62-28 percent. Democrats are the only demographic polled who don't think troops will have to return.
The White House has liked to highlight that the American people thought it was the right thing to do to end the with Afghanistan, and polls do confirm this. According to Quinnipiac, it was 69-24 percent who answered it was "the right thing."
Yet the numbers in support go down from there. For instance, while a majority do still approve of how "President Biden decided to withdrawal all U.S. troops from Afghanistan," that 54 percent is certainly not as high as 69 percent.
Americans don't approve of ho Biden handled the withdrawal either, with just 31 percent approving compared to 65 percent who disapproved. Democrats and Blacks were the only demographics who approve.
President Biden fared poorly in other issues, too; in every issue they were asked about, respondents gave Biden a higher disapproval rating than approval rating.
The president's overall approval-disapproval rating stands at 42-50 percent. A plurality, at 41 percent, "disapprove strongly" of the job Biden is doing.
Significantly, a majority no longer approve of how he has handled coronavirus, with 48 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving. For August, as the poll noted, 53 percent approved while 40 percent disapproved.
Further, a strong plurality, at 46 percent, say they are "very dissatisfied" with "the way things are going in the nation today."
The poll surveyed 1,210 U.S. adults from September 10-13 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.