President Joe Biden’s approval among the Democrat Party has sunk 24 points since July 2021, according to Civiqs polling.
Just 64 percent of Democrats approve of Biden, down from 88 percent since last July. Biden’s approval has dropped a full five points since June 20.
In contrast, former President Donald Trump held an approval rating among Republicans that hovered around 90 percent for years until January 12, dropping to 85 percent just before leaving office.
Civiqs | Joe Biden: Job Approval
archived 7 Jul 2022 18:41:37 UTC
The polling comes as the president has been taking heat from Democrats for not being assertive on culture war issues. “Rudderless, aimless and hopeless,” is how one member of Congress described the White House to CNN.
“There is a leadership vacuum right now, and he’s not filling it,” Democrat consultant Adam Jentleson told the Washington Post. “I sympathize with the argument that there’s very little they can do legislatively. But in moments of crisis, the president is called upon to be a leader. And when people are feeling scared and angry and outraged, they look to him for that, and they’re not getting much.”
The establishment media have also started taking aim at Biden by trying to find his 2024 replacement. In recent weeks, the Post, Politico, Hill, Atlantic, Axios, New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, and Vanity Fair have all raised concerns about Biden remaining on the ticket come 2024.
In an article entitled “Joe Biden Should Not Run for Reelection in 2024,” Atlantic writer Mark Leibovich opined about Biden’s lack of ability to handle the job, stating, “The ‘whispers’ are becoming shouts.”
“It has become thoroughly exhausting—for Biden and his party and, to some extent, the country itself,” the article said. “But the question quiets considerably when no one’s calculating how old a president born during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration will be in 2028.”
The media’s concerns are reflected in polling. Only 36 percent of Democrats want Biden on the 2024 ticket. Among all voters, a majority of voters believe Biden is unfit to be president and doubt his mental ability. Sixty-two percent say he is not fit to be president because he is too old. According to Gallup polling, 59 percent are worried about his mental and physical fitness.
A couple of Biden allies have defended him. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Cedric Richmond, adviser to the president, pleaded with Democrats on Wednesday to hold their criticism.
“The Democratic Party needs to rally around President Biden heading into the midterms and heading into the president’s re-election,” Khanna told the Times. “If people have constructive ideas, they should share them. But they should do it in a spirit of strengthening this president’s hand.”
Richmond defended the president by suggesting his own party is not producing legal or workable ideas to help Biden. “It’s nice for Democratic leaders to come up with ideas,” Richmond said. “But if the ideas are illegal or if they don’t work or if they place people in more harm, he’s not going to do it.”
The Civiqs rolling job approval average had 222,219 responses tracked between January 20 and July 6. The Civiqs tracking model captures the shifts in attitude of various groups over time across all 50 states and Washington, DC. These changes can happen either rapidly or over time.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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