Hi, I'm Darren in New York City. I just said goodbye to my husband who is going back to work on Broadway today after 18 months off.

You're listening to the NPR Politics podcast that was recorded at...

206 Eastern Time on Thursday, September 2nd.

Things may have changed by the time you listen to this podcast, but I'll still be relishing my alone time.

I guess that means Broadway's back. I kind of missed that headline, but shows are back, theaters are back.

I guess so.

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Usma Kala, I cover the White House.

I'm Scott Detro, I also cover the White House, and I'm Ron Helving at her to correspond.

We are beginning to get an initial understanding of how the withdrawal from Afghanistan is affecting Americans views of President Biden.

In the latest NPR PBS NewsHour Marist poll, the president's approval rating slid to 43%, that's down six points from July, and it marks the lowest approval rating for Biden in these polls since he took office.

We are obviously still a ways away from the 2022 midterms, but a shift in public opinion, you know, even if it is temporary, could still have consequences for Biden and his political agenda?

Yes, it is right. And there's no question that this has thrown a chill into the Democrats on Capitol Hill, both with respect to those midterm elections you mentioned, their margins and both chambers are virtually non-existent.

And also with respect to all of the heavy lifting they need to do in the weeks ahead, the infrastructure bill, the enormous budget package that the president has asked for, those were already in some degree of peril, and certainly not assured.

And Democratic, shall we say, unity is almost an oxymoron. So this is a terrible time to have the president drop.

You know, Ron, can you think of any comparisons to this because, you know, if you go back most of the year, a lot of the conversation had been, it's obviously a deeply divided country, but Joe Biden, even with the narrowest of narrow margins and Congress was able to get massive things through or on the verge of being through, you know,

spending and development that we haven't seen in generations and generations. And now suddenly it seems like, you know, if you, especially if you look at those numbers with independence, it looks like a very different presidency of all of the sudden.

It's going to be more difficult to get cooperation from moderates in both parties because those people in particular are highly sensitive to what independence are feeling.

At the same time, we have seen presidents take a hit in the past and come back, particularly if it comes relatively early in their first term, and they have time to recover before the midterms or before their re-election year comes around, even Ronald Reagan, who we most really remember as being a terribly popular president,

dropped all the way to 35% early in his first term and did come back, of course, to win overwhelmingly his re-election. Forty-nine states. That's right. Every single one of 49 states.

I think it's important for us, though, to take a deep dive behind the top line numbers in this poll because when you look at the specifics, got you mentioned independence,

the overall decline that we're seeing in Biden's popularity is mostly due to independence. Just 36% of them approve of the job that Biden is doing. That is a 10 point drop in the last month.

And it feels like Biden is beginning to see some of the same kind of enmity that Donald Trump did. You have a whopping 41% of US adults who now say they strongly disapprove of the job that he's doing.

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