In the earlier days of Joe Biden's presidency, as his approval numbers started to dip, though not as catastrophically as they have now, we were constantly reminded that at least he wasn't polling as badly as his predecessor. Well, that's no longer the case when it comes to a a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll which was shared with The Hill on Monday.
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As Max Greenwood reported for the outlet, 48 percent of respondents have a favorable view of Trump while 46 percent have a favorable view of Biden. Further, 49 percent have an unfavorable view of Biden, while 47 percent have an unfavorable view of Trump. Voters also say the Trump was a better president than Biden has been, by 51 percent to 49 percent.
The poll was conducted September 15-16 with 1,578 registered voters.
Greenwood called it "a remarkable shift for Biden," and sure enough went on to note that the president "repeatedly outperformed Trump’s favorability numbers throughout the early months of his presidency."
Mark Penn, the co-director of the poll, provided comment for The Hill:
“The mounting issues on all fronts have led to the surprise conclusion that Trump is now seen as good a president as Biden, suggesting the honeymoon is being replaced now with buyer’s remorse,” Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, said.
“Since Trump lost the popular vote by 5 points, Trump getting 51 percent as a better president is actually an improvement from Election Day.”
Voters are longing for other members of the Trump administration as well:
Other members of Biden’s administration aren’t faring any better than Biden in the public eye, according to the poll.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed say that Mike Pence was a better vice president than his successor, current Vice President Harris. Secretary of State Antony Blinken performs even worse, with 63 percent of respondents saying that his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, was the better secretary of State.
Penn said that for Blinken, in particular, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has proved particularly tough.
“People see Pence as a better VP by 10 points and overwhelmingly see Pompeo as far better than Blinken, who has been out front on Afghanistan,” Penn said.
This is hardly the only poll where Biden has performed poorly in lately. He's been continuously performing record low in other polls, including in Gallup, another headline grabber.
On Wednesday, Gallup released the results of their poll, which was conducted September 1-17, with 1,005 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
According to the poll, 43 percent of respondents approve of Biden's job performance, while 53 percent disapprove. Then President Trump saw 37 percent approval at this point of his presidency.
In her write-up for Gallup, Megan Brenan highlights not only that "For the first time, a majority, 53%, now disapproves of Biden's performance," but how poorly Biden is performing with independents, a crucial voting bloc when it came to electing the president in 2020. We've highlighted how Biden has been performing poorly with Independents as of late.
As Brenan wrote:
Independents have shown the greatest variation in their opinions of how Biden is doing. Biden's current 37% approval rating among independents is his lowest to date and 24 points below his personal high of 61%. Two-thirds of Biden's slide among independents since he took office has occurred in the past three months.
Harris has been faring poorly as well, though Biden is so underwater that the vice president is surpassing him.
this is the first poll I have ever seen that Kamala Harris has a higher approval than Biden
Harris enjoys nearly unanimous approval from Democrats (92%) while receiving very low approval from Republicans (4%). Her overall approval rating is higher than Biden's primarily because independents rate her performance better than they rate Biden's, 46% versus 37%, respectively.
In addition to her high approval rating among Democrats, Harris receives majority-level approval from Democratic-leaning groups, including women, young adults, college graduates and those with annual household incomes under $100,000.
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Although Vice President Harris' approval rating is slightly higher than the president's, she is also underwater with independents. Americans continue to rate Congress' job negatively and to express general dissatisfaction with the way the nation is being governed.
And the polls keep coming in. A Pew Research poll released on Thursday shows Biden with similar approval ratings, in that 44 percent approve while 53 percent disapprove. It's also worth noting that 56 percent say he is not "mentally sharp" compared to the 43 percent who do. Sixty six percent are not confident Biden can "bring the country closer together."
Ryan Girdusky highlighted how Biden is underwater with key demographics.
Among the demographics that mostly disapprove of Biden:
"Biden’s job approval ratings today are higher than Trump’s were at a similar point, but lower compared with other previous presidents," the deep dive report notes. Trump had 38 percent approval rating.
The poll was conducted September 13-19, with 10,371 panelists responding and a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
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