Biden's polls gets worse: Now the president's average approval has fallen BELOW 50% for the first time amid intense criticism over his bungled Afghanistan withdrawal
Joe Biden's average approval rating has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time in his presidency after his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that saw the Taliban take over in just over a week.
In two separate averages tracked by FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, Biden lost on August 16 his standing of overall approval from half the U.S. and the numbers continue to drop.
The day Biden's approval dropped below the 50 per cent mark was the same day he made remarks doubling-down on his decision to withdraw the U.s. military presence from Afghanistan after two decades.
It also came after the president received a slew of criticism from both sides of the political aisle for remaining silent and claimed he was 'vacationing' in Camp David as the Taliban took the capital city of Kabul on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled.
The FiveThirtyEight average showed Biden dropped in his average approval on Monday to 49.9 per cent and on Wednesday that average approval dropped even more to 49.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average, which includes some similar and some different polling sources, has the president sitting at a 49.6 approval as of Wednesday. It sat at its lowest of Biden's presidency on Tuesday with tracking a 49.4 per cent average approval rating.
Joe Biden's average approval rating has fallen to its lowest level of his presidency – dipping below 50 per cent – in the aftermath of the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The president arrives in D.C. from Camp David on August 17
A FiveThirtyEight average shows Biden at an all-time-low approval Wednesday with 49.3%
A separate polling average from RealClearPolitics showed Biden at 49.4% approval on Tuesday
The latest numbers show a steady decline from around May, when Biden and the CDC announced relaxed mask guidance that allowed some semblance of normalcy – before the indoor mask mandates were reinstituted at the end of last month.
Biden has flaunted a very steady approval between 51-55 per cent since taking office on January 20.
FiveThirtyEight's peak for Biden was in March with 55.1 per cent approval and RealClearPolitics' peak for the current president peaked in April with 55.7 per cent.
Former President Donald Trump's average approval rating during his term hovered between 40-45 per cent during for the majority of his four years. Trump's predecessor Barack Obama largely stayed in the 45-50 per cent range, according to the FiveThirtyEight average.
A separate poll released Monday showed that nearly seven in 10 likely primary election voters disapprove of Biden's handling of the situation in Afghanistan, which is widely attributed to his decline in overall approval, as well.
Biden got a small polling boost earlier this summer as mask mandates relaxed with more Americans getting vaccinated. Since becoming president, Biden has scored highly when it comes to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mask mandates, however, went back into effect for all vaccinated Americans in indoor public places in high-case areas – like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Also contributing to the decline in approval is the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Biden's approval started to dip on Monday, when another survey showed nearly 7 in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan that saw the Taliban take over in just over a week
Hundreds of Afghans line up on August 17 around the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in a desperate attempt to try and get on board an evacuation flight out of Afghanistan
Even some progressive Democrats have admitted that while they agree with the withdrawal, they do not feel the execution was done right by the Biden administration.
Along with the Taliban takeover has come complications evacuating Americans and U.S. allies from Afghanistan.
On Monday, American citizens still stranded in Afghanistan were told to shelter in place rather than make their way to the Kabul airport as it came under attack from the Taliban and was forced to close as Afghan citizens overran the tarmac in a desperate attempt to get on evacuation flights.
What difference do polls make when the constitution and rule of law have been shredded?
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