President Joe Biden has a lower average approval rating than each of the last three presidents at similar points in their administrations, according to Real Clear Politics (RCP) polling data.
As of November 22, Biden’s average approval rating on the polling aggregation website registered at 40.6 percent. Conversely, an average of 55.5 percent of respondents in national polls that are counted toward the website’s running average disapprove of Biden’s performance as president. He owns a net -14.9 rating.
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Biden underperforms former Presidents Donald Trump, Barrack Obama, and George W. Bush to similar points in their presidencies, according to RCP’s data from their administrations.
For example, Trump had an average approval rating of 44.3 percent on November 22, 2019, in his third year as president. Biden is 3.7 percentage points behind Trump’s pace. Trump’s disapproval rating at the time registered at 52.8 percent of voters, giving him a net -8.5 rating.
On November 23, 2011, an average of 43.4 percent of voters in polls tracked by RCP approved of Obama, giving him a slightly worse rating than Trump at that point but a better rating than Biden. An average of 49.9 percent had given Obama negative marks as of November 23, 2011, equating to a net rating of -6.5 percent.
Bush owns the strongest rating of the last four presidents at the end of the November ahead of their reelection years on Real Clear Politics. As of November 22, 2003, an average of 51.3 percent had approved of his performance, while 43.7 percent disapproved.
FiveThirtyEight also shows Biden’s median approval rating is behind Trump’s at similar points in their presidencies. As of Wednesday, Biden’s average approval rating pinged at 38.9 percent on the polling aggregation website. Conversely, an average of 55 percent scored his presidential performance negatively, bringing his net rating to -16.1 percent.
On November 23, 2019, Trump held a 41.9 percent approval rating, with 53.6 percent disapproving, marking a net -11.7 rating.
Biden’s vulnerability is sparking concern among Democrats, according to Politico, as he continues to lead the polls and is far and away the leading Democrat presidential candidate heading into 2024.
“Even those in Biden’s inner circle, including family members, worry about the optics of age,” Politico‘s Elena Schneider, Holly Otterbein, and Jonathan Lemire wrote Sunday.
“Those close allies believe that Biden is mentally up for the job, but some acknowledge that the president can at times appear frail, according to two people involved in the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations,” they added.
A Harvard-Harris poll published Monday, Biden’s 81st birthday, showed that most voters surveyed doubted Biden’s fitness for office (58 percent) and that a majority of respondents felt Biden “is showing he is too old to be President” (66 percent).
The poll also showed Biden six points behind Trump in a hypothetical general election matchup. He took 47 percent of the response to Trump’s 53 percent when leaners were included. The poll sampled 2,851 registered voters and was conducted on November 15-16.