Just 34 percent of voters approve of President Joe Biden’s job performance, a Monday Civiqs poll found.
Rocked by record-high gas prices, forty-year-high inflation, and supply chain woes, Biden’s approval numbers are underwater in every state except Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Even in his home state of Delaware, his approval is only at 35 percent.
The thirty-four percent approval rating marks Biden’s second worst approval rating since becoming president. An April poll found Biden’s approval rating at 33 percent.
The president has tried to reduce his political connection to rising prices by mounting a public relations campaign. Publishing articles in establishment newspapers and allowing his media team to be interviewed on television, Biden has claimed he is doing everything he can to shore up rising prices.
Though Biden has not taken responsibility for the price hikes, he is instead blaming oil companies, Donald Trump, the Ukrainian war, and Republicans. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday directly admitted during a press interview that she and the president failed to accurately assess that inflation would climb to a 40-year-high.
Also, on Tuesday, Yellen told the Senate Finance Committee the Biden “administration has done everything that they can” to lower prices.
“We currently face macroeconomic challenges, including unacceptable levels of inflation as well as the headwinds associated with the disruptions caused by the pandemic’s effect on supply chains, and the effects of supply side disturbances to oil and food markets resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Yellen claimed.
According to Sunday polling, 74 percent of respondents said Biden’s soaring gas prices are an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections. Similarly, eighty percent of Americans said inflation is an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll revealed.
Inflation will cost American households on average an extra $5,200 in 2022, or $433 per month, according to Bloomberg. Inflation will also delay 25 percent of Americans from retiring, a BMO Real Financial Progress Index survey revealed.
Editor’s note: At the time of publication, the article incorrectly noted that President Joe Biden’s approval numbers were underwater in every state except Hawaii. It has been updated to reflect that the president’s approval numbers are above water in Massachusetts and Vermont, along with Hawaii.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.