Voters in the key swing state of Arizona are souring on President Biden following his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, an Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) survey released this week found.
The survey, conducted by OH Predictive Insights, asked Arizona voters, “Do you approve or disapprove of [the] way Joe Biden handled the situation in Afghanistan?”
A majority, or 62 percent, expressed disapproval, and of those, 48 percent said they “strongly” disapprove. Only 31 percent expressed approval.
Opinions drastically vary on party lines, as 61 percent of Democrats approve of his withdrawal, compared to 90 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents who disapprove.
President Joe Biden attends a casualty return as a carry team finishes placing a transfer case containing the remains of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Mo., into the transfer vehicle Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Schmitz a died in an attack at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, along with 12 other U.S. service members. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A majority of Arizona voters, 60 percent, said the U.S. was “right to leave Afghanistan” but said “we could have left in a more orderly manner,” and 83 percent said the U.S. should continue helping the American citizens who are still left in Afghanistan after being stranded by the Biden administration.
Sixty-one percent said the same of Afghan citizens who assisted the U.S. during the 20-year war.
Per the release:
Among those 62% of voters who disapprove of how President Biden handled the situation in Afghanistan, 72% of them thought that the US could have left in a more orderly manner, and another 20% of them think the US was wrong to leave the country in the first place. The 31% of voters who approve of the way Joe Biden handled the situation are narrowly divided in their opinions on the way in which the US withdrew from Afghanistan. Forty-four percent of those who approve of Biden’s withdrawal still think the US could have left in a better manner, while 49% think we left in as good a manner as possible.
Though voters did not like the manner in which the US withdrew, they overwhelmingly felt we were right to leave Afghanistan (78%). Democrats (34%) and liberals (30%) were the groups most likely to believe we left in as good a manner as possible, whereas ‘very’ conservative voters were the most likely to believe we were wrong to leave in the first place (28%).
“Even though Arizona voters vastly agree that pulling U.S. troops from Afghanistan was the right move, most are unhappy with the way President Biden went about it, and their disappointment is being reflected in Biden’s plummeting ratings,” Mike Noble, OHPI Chief of Research, said in a statement.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“However, we’ve seen time heal bigger wounds, and the president still has the majority of his term to make it up to the electorate,” he added.
The survey, taken September 7-12, 2021, among 882 registered Arizona voters, has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent.
Thursday’s RealClearPolitics (RCP) average showed Biden’s approval rating under water, with 50 percent disapproving and 46 approving.
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