The polls haven't been too kind to President Joe Biden and the Democrats, especially when it comes to how he'd fare in a rematch from 2020 between him and former and potentially future President Donald Trump, a rematch that is looking more likely by the day. It's not merely the hypothetical matchup that looks bad for Biden, though. The American people are turning on him and his narratives when it comes to all sorts of policy issues, concerns, and talking points.
The most recent poll from The Economist/YouGov shows that Trump and Biden are still statistically tied among registered voters, but that Trump has the edge here, with 43 percent to Biden's 42 percent support.
Economist/YouGov, Feb. 18-20
— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) February 21, 2024
If an election for president were going to be held now and the Democratic nominee was Joe Biden and the Republican nominee was Donald Trump, would you vote for...
Trump: 43%
Biden: 42%
(Among registered voters)https://t.co/4jtYi0V3kj pic.twitter.com/DjppTC9FXr
Trump also similarly has a slight edge in the support he has among Republicans, at 87 percent, compared to the 86 percent support Biden has from Democrats. Independents also favor Trump over Biden, 41-30 percent.
Economist/YouGov, Feb. 18-20
— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) February 21, 2024
If an election for president were going to be held now and the Democratic nominee was Joe Biden and the Republican nominee was Donald Trump, would you vote for...
Trump: 43%
Biden: 42%
(Among registered voters)https://t.co/4jtYi0VB9R pic.twitter.com/TFg14QF4rR
This poll also asked about how respondents felt about the recently impeached Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in terms of his favorability as well as the impeachment effort against him.
While a plurality of all respondents, at 40 percent, say they don't know whether they feel favorably or unfavorably towards Mayorkas, a plurality of registered voters, at 43 percent, say they have an unfavorable view of the secretary. This includes 30 percent who say they have a "very unfavorable" view. Further, it's those who intend to vote for Trump in 2024 (67 percent unfavorable), Republicans (60 percent unfavorable), and conservatives (62 percent unfavorable) who feel the most strongly about Mayorkas. Only a plurality of voters who intend to vote for Biden (46 percent) and of Democrats (41 percent) say they have a favorable view of Mayorkas, while a plurality of liberals, at 43 percent, say they don't know.
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On the impeachment, 41 percent of voters and 42 percent of all respondents say they've heard "a little" about Mayorkas being impeached by the House earlier this month.
A plurality of all respondents, at 43 percent, say they approve. The plurality is even higher among registered voters, at 47 percent. While a slim majority of voters who intend to vote for Biden in 2024 (53 percent) and liberals (50 percent) disapprove of the impeachment, only a plurality of Democrats, at 42 percent, say they disapprove. The numbers of support are much stronger when it comes to those voters who intend to vote for Trump (77 percent approve), Republicans (70 percent approve), and conservatives (72 percent). Forty-one percent of Independents, a plurality, also approve.
As Townhall has been covering, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) may make the unprecedented move of tabling the impeachment, and not every Senate Republican is on board with impeaching Mayorkas. A group of 13 Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) last week, urging him to stand strong.
For the Senate to not do their constitutional duty would fly in the face of what the American people want, as the poll shows.
Economist/YouGov, Feb. 18-20
— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) February 21, 2024
By 43% to 25%, Americans approve of the House of Representatives voting to impeach Alejandro Mayorkashttps://t.co/M2AmVs7SgA pic.twitter.com/AQYkL6xUcv
When the impeachment finally took place on February 13, after failing the week before, Biden expressed his outrage the following morning from his official account in a series of posts.
"History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their baseless impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas," his post claimed. A subsequent post in the thread also took the opportunity to once more promote a disastrous border bill killed in a matter of days in the Senate, while also bashing Republicans on that matter too.
Sadly, the same Republicans pushing this impeachment are rejecting bipartisan plans to strengthen border security at this very moment.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 14, 2024
Congress needs to act to give my Administration the tools needed to address the situation at the border.
The poll shows that just 34 percent of all respondents and 35 percent of registered voters approve of how the president is handling immigration, while 57 percent of all respondents and 58 percent of registered voters disapprove. Sixty percent of Independents disapprove. RealClearPolling continues to have immigration as Biden's worst issue, as just 31.2 percent approve while 64.5 percent disapprove of how he is handling the issue.
Biden's approval rating on the issue is likely only to get worse, given that since the poll was conducted and released, a suspect was arrested and charged with murder for last week's killing of 22-year-old University of Georgia student Laken Riley. The suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, was in the country illegally from Venezuela.
It's been a common refrain that Biden, Mayorkas, and Democrats' open border policies are to blame for this senseless death. It would appear that the impeachment effort against Mayorkas is looking less and less "baseless" by the day.
The poll contained bad news for the president and the Biden crime family on another area, though. From his time on the campaign trail leading up to the 2020 election to his time in the White House, Biden and his administration have changed the narrative on how involved he was with Hunter Biden's shady business dealings. Biden himself angrily claimed last December that reported conversations between him, his brother, his son, and their business associates was "just a bunch of lies."
The president had been confronted by a reporter with the results of an AP-NORC poll from last October showing that 68 percent of adults believe that Biden did something illegal (38 percent) or unethical (35 percent) with his son's business dealings.
This more recent poll similarly shows bad news on that narrative. Some of the last questions asked respondents about Joe and Hunter Biden. When asked if they think that "Joe Biden has personally profited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings," 50 percent of all respondents and 53 percent of registered voters said "yes."
The only demographics where a majority of respondents said "no," included the 65 percent of those who intend to vote for Biden in 2024, the 57 percent of liberals, the 55 percent of Democrats, and the 54 percent who lean Democratic. A plurality of black respondents (39 percent) and those 18-29 (37 percent) said they weren't sure.
The next question was even worse for the president. When asked if they "think that Hunter Biden has personally profited from his father Joe Biden’s positions in government," a whopping 67 percent of all respondents and 69 percent of registered voters said "yes."
Even pluralities of those who intend to vote for Biden in 2024 (41 percent) and Democrats (44 percent) said Hunter benefited. Fifty percent of liberals also said he did. The most support for the "no" response came from 33 percent of those who intend to vote for Biden.
It's also not looking to go away, especially as more news stories come out about the president's involvement with family members and other shady characters, and we are increasingly finding out more when it comes to testimonies provided by former associates and others involved.
The poll was conducted February 18-20 with 1,562 U.S. adults, which included 1,360 registered voters. There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Joe Biden REALLY didn’t want to talk about his reported communications with son Hunter, brother James, and their business associates.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 6, 2023
"I'm not gonna comment. I did not. It's just a bunch of lies. They're lies." pic.twitter.com/lWp10RvhaI
