5th Circuit Court Blocks Federal Vax Mandate, Rejects Biden Claim to Be ‘CEO’ of America

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5th Circuit Court Blocks Federal Vax Mandate, Rejects Biden Claim to Be ‘CEO’ of America

(Headline USA) President Joe Biden’s order that federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 was blocked Thursday by a federal appeals court.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected arguments that Biden, as the nation’s chief executive, has the same authority as the CEO of a private corporation to require that employees be vaccinated.

The ruling from the full appeals court, 16 full-time judges at the time the case was argued, reversed an earlier ruling by a three-judge 5th Circuit panel that had upheld the vaccination requirement.

Judge Andrew Oldham, nominated to the court by then-President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion for a 10-member majority.

The ruling maintains the status quo for federal employee vaccines. It upholds a preliminary injunction blocking the mandate issued by a federal judge in January 2022. At that point, the administration said nearly 98% of covered employees had been vaccinated.

And, Oldham noted, with the preliminary injunction arguments done, the case will return to that court for further arguments, when “both sides will have to grapple with the White House’s announcement that the COVID emergency will finally end on May 11, 2023.”

Opponents of the policy said it was an encroachment on federal workers’ lives that neither the Constitution nor federal statutes authorize.

Biden issued an executive order in September 2021 requiring vaccinations for all executive branch agency employees, with exceptions for medical and religious reasons. The requirement kicked in the following November.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by Trump, issued a nationwide injunction against the requirement the following January.

The case then went to the 5th Circuit.

One panel of three 5th Circuit judges refused to immediately block the law.

But a different panel, after hearing arguments, upheld Biden’s position. Judges Carl Stewart and James Dennis, both nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton, were in the majority. Judge Rhesa Barksdale, nominated by President George H.W. Bush, dissented, saying the relief the challengers sought does not fall under the Civil Service Reform Act cited by the administration.

The broader court majority agreed, saying federal law does not preclude court jurisdiction over cases involving “private, irreversible medical decisions made in consultation with private medical professionals outside the federal workplace.”

A majority of the full court voted to vacate that ruling and reconsider the case. The 16 active judges heard the case on Sept. 13, joined by Barksdale, who is now a senior judge with lighter duties than the full-time members of the court.

Judge Stephen Higginson, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, wrote the main dissenting opinion. “For the wrong reasons, our court correctly concludes that we do have jurisdiction,” Higginson wrote. “But contrary to a dozen federal courts—and having left a government motion to stay the district court’s injunction pending for more than a year—our court still refuses to say why the President does not have the power to regulate workplace safety for his employees.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

House GOP’s Push for Parents’ Rights in Education Gets Put to a Vote

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House GOP’s Push for Parents’ Rights in Education Gets Put to a Vote

(Headline USA) House Republicans will press forward Friday with a midterm campaign promise by voting on legislation to give parents greater say in what is taught in public schools—even as far-left critics, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., decry the “parents’ rights” bill as a “fascist” proposal that has resulted in book bans, rewrites of history curricula and raucous school board meetings across the country.

“Parents want schools focused on reading, writing and math, not woke politics,” Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, said during House debate Thursday.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has made the bill—labeled the Parents’ Bill of Rights Act—a top priority during the early weeks of his tenure atop the House.

The “parents’ bill of rights” was a plank in his midterm election pitch to voters to give Republicans a House majority. Although the GOP’s expectation of a sweeping, red-wave victory never materialized, he pressed ahead with the bill as a priority, making a public appeal earlier this month at an event that featured a chalkboard, schoolchildren and parents who have been on the frontlines of the cause.

McCarthy chose the bill’s number, H.R. 5, because children enter kindergarten at age five, and the legislation is built on five pillars:

  • parents’ right to examine curricula and school library books
  • meet with educators at least twice each school year
  • review school budgets and spending
  • be notified of violent events in their child’s school
  • have elementary and middle schools to get their consent to change a child’s gender designation, pronouns or name

“It’s about every parent, mom and dad, but most importantly about the students in America,” McCarthy said at the introduction event.

The bill will be an early test of unity for the chamber’s 222 Republicans, who hold the majority by only five seats.

Even as House Republicans returned this week from a retreat where they insisted they are unified, lawmakers have proposed a score of potential changes to the bill, adding a degree of uncertainty to Friday’s vote.

It showed how the adoption of an open amendment process in the House—a concession McCarthy made to win hardline conservatives’ support for his speakership—holds the potential to send legislation down unpredictable twists and turns.

House Freedom Caucus members ambitiously attempted to add other amendments to the bill including: a call to abolish the Department of Education, a requirement that schools report transgender athletes who participate in women’s sports and an endorsement of vouchers that would send public funds to private schools.

“Some of this stuff will sink the bill,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska on Thursday evening, adding, “You’re taking a bill that is generally unifying and you’re making it more partisan than it needed to be and that’s what I worry about.”

Even if the House passes the legislation, it has little chance in the Democratic-held Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., promised it faced a “dead end” in his chamber and skewered it as evidence that the House GOP has been overtaken by “hard right MAGA ideologues.”

Democrats also raised alarm that the bill as written would force schools to out LGBTQ students to their families, which can sometimes lead to abuse or abandonment.

“We’ll fight against this legislation. We’ll fight against the banning of books, fight against the bullying of children from any community, and certainly from the LGBTQ+ community,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said.

The bill’s supporters described it as common-sense legislation to foster opportunities for schoolchildren by encouraging parents to have greater input into what their children learn in school.

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said, “Our bill is meant to give parents their God-given rights to be involved with their children’s education.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

WWIII Brewing? U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Syria after Drone Kills Contractor

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WWIII Brewing? U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Syria after Drone Kills Contractor

(Headline USA) A strike Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded five American troops and another contractor in northeast Syria, the Pentagon said.

American forces said they retaliated soon after with “precision airstrikes” in Syria targeting facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, with activist groups saying they killed at least four people.

The attack and the U.S. response threaten to upend recent efforts to deescalate tensions across the wider Middle East, whose rival powers have made steps toward détente in recent days after years of turmoil.

However, much of the current peace effort may be at the expense of U.S. and western pro-democratic influence. The burgeoning wartime alliance of Russia and China has brought both Iran and Syria into their gravitational pull, as well as one-time U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, which was insulted by President Joe Biden’s harsh rhetoric against its crown prince.

It is a dramatic reversal from the Trump administration, during which America’s Middle Eastern enemies were forced into isolation due to diplomatic strenght, thereby emboldening allies and allowing several historic peace treaties to be brokered by then-President Donald Trump.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the American intelligence community had determined the drone was of Iranian origin, but offered no other immediate evidence to support the claim.

“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria” by groups affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, Austin said.

Iran relies on a network of proxy forces through the Mideast to counter the U.S. and Israel, its arch regional enemy.

The Pentagon said two of the wounded service members were treated on-site, while three others and the injured contractor were transported to medical facilities in Iraq.

Overnight, videos on social media purported to show explosions in Syria’s Deir el-Zour, a strategic province that borders Iraq and contains oil fields. Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area, which also has seen suspected airstrikes by Israel in recent months allegedly targeting Iranian supply routes.

Iran and Syria did not immediately acknowledge the strikes, nor did their officials at the United Nations in New York respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.

The activist group Deir Ezzor 24 put the death toll from the American strikes at four people. Deir Ezzor 24, which covers news in Deir el-Zour province, said the strikes hit the city of Deir el-Zour as well as militiamen posts near Mayadeen and Boukamal. It said the strikes also wounded people, including Iraqis.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that the American strikes killed six Iranian-backed fighters at an arms depot in the Harabesh neighborhood in the city of Deir el-Zour. The Observatory, which relies on a network of local contacts in Syria, said U.S. bombing at a post near the town of Mayadeen killed two fighters.

A separate American strike hit a military post near the town of Boukamal along the border with Iraq, killing another three fighters, the Observatory said.

The AP could not immediately independently confirm the activist reports.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been suspected of carrying out attacks with bomb-carrying drones across the wider Middle East.

In recent months, Russia has begun using Iranian drones in its attacks on sites across Ukraine as part of its war on Kyiv. Iran has issued a series of conflicting denials about its drones being used in the war, though Western nations and experts have tied components in the drones back to Tehran.

The exchange of strikes came as Saudi Arabia and Iran have been working toward reopening embassies in each other’s countries. The kingdom also acknowledged efforts to reopen a Saudi embassy in Syria, whose embattled President Bashar Assad has been backed by Iran in his country’s long war.

U.S. Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the head of the American military’s Central Command, warned that American forces could carry out additional strikes if needed. “We are postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks,” Kurilla said in a statement.

Addressing the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Kurilla warned lawmakers that the “Iran of today is exponentially more militarily capable than it was even five years ago.” He pointed to Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles and bomb-carrying drones.

Kurilla also alleged that Iran had launched some 78 attacks on U.S. positions in Syria since January 2021.

“What Iran does to hide its hand is they use Iranian proxies,” Kurilla said.

Diplomacy to deescalate the crisis appeared to begin immediately around the strikes. Qatar’s state-run news agency reported a call between its foreign minister and Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser. Doha has been an interlocutor between Iran and the U.S. recently amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Qatar’s foreign minister also spoke around the same time with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Austin said he authorized the retaliatory strikes at the direction of President Joe Biden.

“As President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin said. “No group will strike our troops with impunity.”

The U.S. under Biden has struck Syria previously over tensions with Iran. In February and June of 2021, as well as August 2022, Biden launched attacks there.

U.S. forces entered Syria in 2015, backing allied forces in their fight against the Islamic State group. The U.S. still maintains the base near Hasakah in northeast Syria where Thursday’s drone strike happened. There are roughly 900 U.S. troops, and even more contractors, in Syria, including in the north and farther south and east.

Since the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Iran has sought “to make life difficult for U.S. forces stationed east of the Euphrates,” said Hamidreza Azizi, an expert with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“Iran increased its support for local proxies in Deir el-Zour while trying to ally with the tribal forces in the area,” Azizi wrote in a recent analysis. “Due to the geographical proximity, Iraqi groups also intensified their activities in the border strip with Syria and in the Deir el-Zour province.”

The strikes come during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Syria’s war began with the 2011 Arab Spring protests that roiled the wider Middle East and toppled governments in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. It later morphed into a regional proxy conflict that has seen Russia and Iran back Assad. The United Nations estimates over 300,000 civilians have been killed in the war. Those figures do not include soldiers and insurgents killed in the conflict; their numbers are believed to be in the tens of thousands.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Lawmakers Tell Ex-CEOs of Woke Banks: ‘You Must Answer’ for Failures

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Lawmakers Tell Ex-CEOs of Woke Banks: ‘You Must Answer’ for Failures

(Headline USA) Leaders of the Senate’s banking committee on Thursday warned former chief executive officers at the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that they expect them to testify before the panel, saying in a letter to each: “you must answer for the bank’s downfall.”

The committee is examining the events leading up to the closures of the banks, starting with the first congressional hearing on Tuesday. Separate letters were sent Thursday to Gregory Becker, the former head of Silicon Valley Bank, and to Joseph DePaolo, the former head of Signature Bank.

Both CEOs had indicated to the committee they would be unable to attend Tuesday’s hearing, according to the letter. But the senators said they believe the CEOs can testify to Congress without disclosing confidential information. Nor would the executives need to hand over bank records and files to provide informative testimony, they said.

Attorneys copied in on the letters sent to the CEOs did not immediately reply to requests from the Associated Press for comment.

Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California, failed on March 10 after depositors rushed to withdraw money amid fears about the bank’s health. It was the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.

Regulators convened over the following weekend and announced that New York-based Signature Bank also had failed. They said that all depositors at both banks, including those holding uninsured funds, those exceeding $250,000, would be protected by federal deposit insurance.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic chairman of the banking panel, and Sen. Tim Scott, the ranking Republican, said the committee needs to understand how the banks managed risk during their rapid growth and what led to them both having a large proportion of uninsured depositors.

Both have been criticized for prioritizing diversity initiatives, among other things, over risk management.

The senators also asked SVB’s Becker for information on the “payment of bonuses in the hours leading up to the seizure of the bank by regulators.”

Lawmakers also are scrutinizing the actions of regulators who supervised the two banks, and that will be the focus of Tuesday’s hearing with testimony from Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Michael Barr, a vice chairman at the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors; and Nellie Liang, undersecretary for domestic finance at the Treasury Department.

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have also launched investigations into the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and President Joe Biden has called on Congress to strengthen rules on regional banks and to impose tougher penalties on executives of failed banks.

Conservatives have scoffed at the idea, pointing to the fact that it was Biden’s policies—notably his reckless federal spending, which helped spur inflation, which prompted the Federal Reserve to jack up interest rates—that contributed in large part to the failures.

Some, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, also have warned that the leftist administration may intend to use a bank panic as justification to impose a central federal digital currency—essentially, a government-regulated alternative to cryptocurrency that could have dangerous implications for civil liberties and privacy rights.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Ray Epps Hires Lawyer w/ Ties to FBI-Linked Perkins Coie, Threatens Tucker Carlson

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Ray Epps Hires Lawyer w/ Ties to FBI-Linked Perkins Coie, Threatens Tucker Carlson

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Ray Epps’s new attorney, who is demanding on behalf of his client a public apology from Tucker Carlson under threat of a defamation lawsuit, is the director of a radical anti-Trump organization, a close associate of Media Matters Democrat attack dog David Brock and a former employee of Perkins Coie, the lawfare firm behind Russiagate and the Steele dossier.

Epps’s attorney, Michael Teter, sent a letter on Thursday to Carlson, demanding the Fox News host retract what Teter called “false and defamatory statements” that Epps was a J6 government plant.

Carlson and myriad media outlets have reported on Epps’s suspect actions connected to the J6 uprising, his dubious testimony to the J6 Inquisition and his connections to federal agents.

Teter — Epps’s new lawyer — is a former employee of Perkins Coie, the firm notorious for the grunt work and disinformation campaigns it ran for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The Democrat-connected law firm helped hatch the Steele dossier and actively collaborated with the FBI to push the bogus Russia collusion narrative. In the run-up to the 2016 tilt, Perkins Coie had furnished the FBI with office space.

“We have learned that since March 2012, the FBI approved and facilitated a Secure Work Environment at Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C. office, which continues to be operational,” lawmakers wrote to FBI chief Christopher Wray.

And now one of Perkins Coie’s alumni is helping Ray Epps shut down Tucker Carlson.

After leaving Perkins Coie, Ray Epps’ new attorney hooked up with Media Matters founder and TDS fabulist David Brock. While not threatening Tucker Carlson with lawsuits on behalf of suspected J6 fed plant Ray Epps, Teter manages The 65 Project, where Brock is a senior advisor.

The 65 Project was launched to punish lawyers who supported President Trump and to dissuade future attempts to overturn elections on illegitimate grounds.

1,200 New J6 Arrests Likely, as D.C. Prosecution Rates Plunge for Actual Criminals

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1,200 New J6 Arrests Likely, as D.C. Prosecution Rates Plunge for Actual Criminals

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) While government agents and Democrat operatives focus time and resources on prosecuting hundreds of peaceful J6 protestors, Washington, D.C., is setting records for the number of actual criminals given free passes.

Nearly 70% of arrested thugs, thieves, gangbangers and petty criminals were never tried for their crimes last year in Washington, D.C., even as the Justice Department is proclaiming that at least 1,200 more people are likely to face charges in connection with the J6 uprising.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 67% of arrests were not prosecuted in 2022, up from 31% in 2016, NBC4-Washington reported.

“Violent crime is still violent crime, and the people who commit violent crimes are not doing it in a more significant way,” said D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy Henderson, criticizing the lack of prosecutions. “They are more brazen, more lawless, and we need to do everything in our power to stop them in their tracks.”

Brandon Straka found the statistics particularly galling. Straka, a gay pro-Trump activist who founded the WalkAway Campaign and was forced into a plea deal connected to his J6 activity after he was threatened by federal prosecutors, read about D.C.’s abysmal prosecution rate as he was heading to a court-mandated drug test, part of the three years’ probation and $5,000 fine he received.

For speaking at a rally and filming parts of the J6 protest, Straka pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct. The court later leaked parts of his plea agreement that indicated he had provided “substantial” information on potential rioters, an allegation he refuted.

“Nobody I know committed any crimes and I have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing from anybody. There is NOTHING WRONG with talking to the DOJ and telling them your friends are innocent,” Straka wrote at the time.

“I stood OUTSIDE the Capitol for 8 mins filming a crowd & 2 open doors,” he tweeted this week in a thread that included a report on D.C.’s pathetic prosecution rates.

“Absolutely ridiculous and absurd,” wrote Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier, concerning both Straka’s persecution and D.C.’s lack of prosecuting actual criminals. “The start of a Banana Republic, and the last few years of the Republic.”

White House to Disband COVID Emergency Team in May

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White House to Disband COVID Emergency Team in May

(Headline USA) The White House plans to disband its COVID emergency response team in May, when the public health emergency for the pandemic ends, according to CNN.

It has been more than three years since the virus first entered the U.S., triggering lockdowns nationwide. President Joe Biden has admitted that the “pandemic is over,” yet he has refused to immediately terminate the pandemic emergency order or disband his emergency response team, instead letting both run out the clock.

The White House is, predictably, spinning the disbanding of the COVID emergency team as a success on Biden’s part.

“As a result of this administration’s historic response to Covid-19, we as a nation are in a safer, better place than we were three years ago,” a senior administration official said in a statement. “Covid no longer disrupts our lives because of investments and our efforts to mitigate its worst impacts. Covid is not over, fighting it remains an administration priority, and transitioning out of the emergency phase is the natural evolution of the Covid response.”

The White House’s COVID emergency team has been left without much of a job ever since Dr. Anthony Fauci retired in December. Fauci admitted in a recent PBS documentary that Biden’s team never did anything regarding the virus without consulting him first, while he laughed off any notion of a Wuhan lab leak and doubled-down on mask mandates.

Now that Democrats are finally willing to move on from the pandemic, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there needs to be some accountability for the harm their policies have done.

“I think every step of the way, they would always try to do things to condition your behavior, control your behavior. I think it’s just better policy to just tell it like it is. Give people the information, the best information you have, give it to them, give them the facts, and then let them make the best decisions for themselves and for their families,” DeSantis said last week.

Schumer Refuses To Say Whether He Supports Political Prosecution of Trump

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Schumer Refuses To Say Whether He Supports Political Prosecution of Trump

(Headline USA) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to say this week whether he had confidence in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

Bragg is reportedly getting ready to roll out an indictment of Trump for an alleged hush money the former president paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. Bragg plans to claim the hush payment, otherwise known as a non-disclosure agreement, was a campaign finance violation and that it was improperly reported.

When asked about the case, Schumer said, “Look, the bottom line, is – as I said – it’s premature to comment on what’s happening and we’ll have to wait and see what [Bragg] does … We don’t know what’s going to happen yet.”

Other Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have been much more straightforward.

“There’s many reasons not to support Donald Trump. There’s many reasons why Donald Trump should not be president again of the United States, but you should not allow the court system to be viewed as a political pawn,” Manchin said on Tuesday. “I think it would basically have the reverse effect as what some people would think, not for the good.”

Bragg’s prosecution of Trump seems to have run into some roadblocks. A source with ties to his office said on Wednesday that Bragg has repeatedly delayed the convening of a grand jury to review his case because he is concerned they won’t go for it.

“The last thing he wants is for the grand jury to vote against him,” the source said. “He wants a no-doubt-about-it case. He is pressuring the ‘Trump obsessed’ to step up and prove the case.”

Trump, however, has reportedly told allies that he hopes the prosecution moves forward, saying the public spectacle would greatly benefit his 2024 presidential campaign.

The former president said he wants to be handcuffed if he has to make an in-person court appearance, saying that if he is going to be fingerprinted and taken in for a mug shot, he might as well use the event to benefit his campaign, according to a report.

Portland To Install $20K Permanent ‘Sleeping Pods’ For Homeless

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Portland To Install $20K Permanent ‘Sleeping Pods’ For Homeless

(Headline USA) Portland officials are considering installing semi-permanent “pods,” or housing units for homeless persons, which could cost city residents millions of dollars per year.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced the plan on Tuesday during a virtual town hall, saying the city wants to replace homeless tent cities with “sleeping pods,” Fox News reported.

“Tents will work,” Wheeler said. “But if we can also find a quick way to fund and deliver pods — that would certainly be an improvement, from my perspective.” 

The plan includes six large outdoor camps with pods, which Wheeler said he believes would give him the flexibility to ban homeless camping in all public spaces. The pod, according to Wheeler, are “a much more expensive proposition.” The city could pay up to $20,000 per pod, Wheeler admitted.

Wheeler said the plan is supported by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, even though he admitted she has raised concerns that he would be creating permanent tent camps in the city.

“One of the concerns that’s been expressed by the governor is that what we’re proposing is a tent camp, and frankly, some of the neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity are concerned about that as well. Now, I could certainly live with that … but the governor feels pretty strongly that it should be more rigid structures like pods. And she’s committed to both helping fund those and secure them, so I think that’s a big step up … it’s greatly appreciated,” Wheeler said.

Kotek stopped short of promising funding for the project, but said she wants to see homeless residents given an option for permanent housing.

“They need to have the land, they need to have the plan, and they need to be sure they can get outcomes with the funding we want to give them. I need to see from the city is them working with the county to get people in the door and out the door into permanent housing. And so, I hope to see that plan soon because that’s what we want to fund from the state,” she said.

POLL: Biden Approval Dips Near Lowest Point

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POLL: Biden Approval Dips Near Lowest Point

(Headline USA) Stumbling on the international stage, overseeing a string of financial calamity with failing banks, continued Fed rate hikes and inflation pounding American consumers, and embattled with a classified document scandal and his family’s financial ties to China, approval of President Joe Biden has dropped to its near lowest point of his presidency.

That’s according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which shows a public mood souring on Biden as his scandals grow, inflation simmers, the border crisis worsens and crime skyrockets. Biden plucked an approval rating of 38% in the new poll, after 45% said they approved in February and 41% in January. His ratings hit their lowest point of his presidency last July, at 36%, as the full weight of rising gasoline, food and other costs began to hit U.S. households.

In recent months, approval of Biden had been hovering above 40%. Just 31% approve of Biden’s stewardship of the national economy, about where it’s been over the course of the last year. His handling of the nation’s economic fortunes has been a weak point at least since late 2021, when the inflation that the administration had suggested was transitory became a bigger pain point for businesses and families.

Michael McComas, 51, voted Republican in 2020 and described Biden as “not great — average, I guess.” A resident of Westland, Michigan, he noted that it will take years to determine whether federal infrastructure spending fulfills the promises made by Biden.

McComas said he believes inflation is the direct result of government spending to counter the pandemic, a claim that Biden has personally rejected when asked by reporters.

“We poured so much money into the system — that’s a little frustrating that we were shocked that we got hit by inflation when a lot of our policies were inflationary,” McComas said.

The difference between Biden’s approval overall and his approval on the economy is driven largely by Democrats, 76% of whom say they approve of how he’s handling his job as president while 63% approve of his handling of the economy. Few Republicans approve of Biden on either count.

Democrats under the age of 45 feel less positive about Biden, causing a drag on his approval ratings. Just 54% approve of the president’s economic leadership, compared to 72% of Democrats older than 45. Similarly, just 66% of Democrats under 45 approve of Biden overall, compared to 85% of older Democrats.

Only about a quarter of Americans say the national economy is good or that the country is headed in the right direction, the poll shows. Those numbers have also fluctuated only slightly over the last few months.

Ratings of Biden’s handling of foreign policy (39%) and climate change (41%) are about on par with his overall approval ratings. Seventy-four percent of Democrats and 9% of Republicans approve of Biden on foreign policy, while 67% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans approve of his handling of climate change.

Theresa Ojuro, a 29-year-old doctoral student in Rochester, New York, said she “expected more” from Biden — “just a little bit more stability with the economy.” Ojuro, who voted for Biden in 2020, also noted that the bank failures are dragging down her sentiment, but she worries about how high taxes are in New York state relative to the benefits provided.

“If Biden is doing his job, why in a state like this can you see people really suffering?” Ojuro said.

The poll of 1,081 adults was conducted Mar. 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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