Why is President Biden so unpopular?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
As the White House confronts multiple crises, some Democrats are openly questioning whether the president is capable of leading their party through a contentious midterm election.
President Biden has been mired in low approval ratings for months. Despite coming into office with a bold vision to combat climate change, rising wealth inequality and political partisanship, Biden’s agenda has consistently faced obstruction from Republicans and even members of his own party.
Meanwhile, a spate of mass shootings and the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade have left many Democrats feeling anxious that Biden lacks the political will to meet the moment and rally voters in time for victory in the 2022 midterm elections.
White House reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Cleve Wootson join us today to share their insights on why voters and Democrats are feeling dissatisfied with Biden.
Read more:
Biden heads to Saudi Arabia this week after promising to make the country a “pariah.” But he is sending mixed signals about the trip, leaving the results uncertain.
Biden sends every signal he’s running in 2024, even as skepticism grows among Democrats.
As some Democrats grow impatient with Biden, alternative voices emerge
Read Yasmeen’s article about how the Biden administration formed its response to the overturning of Roe v Wade.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know, I've been having a lot of conversations in the past couple of weeks with a lot of |
| 0:06.7 | different people. |
| 0:07.7 | And one thing that I keep hearing over and over again is this question of whether President |
| 0:12.4 | Biden is the right leader for not just the Democratic Party, but even America at the |
| 0:17.8 | moment that we're in right now. |
| 0:19.5 | It's starting to sound like people are just feeling very dissatisfied and even disillusioned |
| 0:25.0 | with his leadership. |
| 0:26.7 | This is politics producer Arjun Singh. |
| 0:29.2 | He's been thinking a lot about the president's popularity or lack thereof. |
| 0:34.2 | President Biden's trip to Ohio comes as a new mon with the university poll shows that |
| 0:38.7 | his approval, reading down, dismal. |
| 0:42.3 | Just months before the midterm elections, a handful of domestic issues are driving the |
| 0:47.6 | political agenda, rising inflation, a series of high-profile shootings, and the overturning |
| 0:54.5 | of row versus weight. |
| 0:56.4 | It's all dragging down President Biden's approval rating. |
| 0:59.7 | The president's low approval ratings have really, really frightened him and Democrats |
| 1:04.5 | around the country, especially on Capitol Hill. |
| 1:08.2 | Arjun spoke with a couple of our colleagues about this, including White House reporter |
| 1:12.0 | Cleve Woodson, who made this interesting point. |
| 1:15.3 | Look, Biden's superpower is that he could be Trump, right? |
| 1:19.9 | And if you look back at it, if you talk to voters up and down across the country, it was |
| 1:25.2 | that, look, Biden, I can beat Trump, these other folks can't. |
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