A poll indicated on Wednesday that the Afghanistan debacle and spiraling inflation continue to sink President Joe Biden‘s favorability with the American people, USA Today reported.
Biden’s approval rating has fallen 14 points underwater in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, with 55% of Americans saying they disapprove of his job performance and 41% saying they approve.
Biden managed 87% approval among his fellow Democrats and a lackluster 32% among non-affiliated voters.
Americans remain divided along partisan lines about Biden’s response to COVID-19, with panic-mongering over “mutant” strains like the so-called delta variant having diverted public attention from serious economic and foreign-policy matters.
Even while Biden has focusing the greater part of his attention on COVID-19, only half of Americans believe that he has appropriately responded to the virus.
The poll showed that Americans have noticed the failing economy and the historic Afghanistan blunder.
Nearly two-in-three Americans think Biden has botched the nation’s post-lockdown economic recovery and two-in-three think he mismanaged the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Only one-in-four voters said Biden properly handled the withdrawal.
The disastrous withdrawal has not convinced Americans that the military should have continued its nation-building project in Afghanistan: 53% still think leaving was the right decision, compared to 38% who wanted the United States to stay.
“He basically handed the Taliban all these weapons, and he’s inspired a resurgent ISIS now,” said Aubrey Schlumbrecht, 51, of Lakewood, Colorado, a home health-care nurse and political independent who responded to the poll.
“He is not even taking any responsibility,” Schlumbrecht added. “He says he owns it, but he’s blaming other people and he’s blaming the Afghan people themselves.”
Hardly any Americans blame Biden for the 20-year-long Afghanistan war as a whole, however.
George W. Bush bore responsibility in the minds of 62% of Americans, while 15% blamed Barack Obama. Only 7% blamed Biden.
