For several months now, CNN’s presidential approval poll has been quite generous to Joe Biden. In December, they only had him at -2, a month earlier, they had him at -4, and a month before that, they had him +1 approval. It seemed like no matter how badly Biden was doing after the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, in a sea of approval polls with Biden in the negative double digits, CNN managed to keep him only marginally underwater.
Until now.
In CNN’s latest poll, Biden’s approval rating comes in at -17, his worst showing yet from a CNN poll.
Biden's recent CNN poll approval numbers.
Jan. 10-Feb. 6, 2022 (-17 net approval)
Dec. 8-12, 2021 (-2 net appr.)
Nov. 1-4, 2021 (-4 net appr.)
Oct. 7-11, 2021 (1 net appr.)
Aug. 3-Sept. 7, 2021 (4 net appr.)
April 21-26, 2021 (10 net appr.)
March 3-8, 2021 (10 net appr.) pic.twitter.com/SNLyldFpW8— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) February 10, 2022
“Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Joe Biden is handling his presidency, with most of that group saying there’s literally nothing Biden has done since taking office that they approve of,” CNN reports.
“The President’s ratings have fallen across the board, the survey found. Just 41% approved of the way he’s handling his job while 58% disapproved, a significant drop from his approval numbers in CNN polling last year,” the network painfully admits. “Just 36% of independents and 9% of Republicans approved. Although his approval rating still stood at 83% among Democrats, that was down from 94% late last summer.”
Their poll also found that 41% of Americans strongly disapprove of his performance, while only 15% strongly approve.
But here’s the real kick in the pants for Biden. “When those who disapproved of Biden’s overall performance were asked to name a single thing he’d done that they did approved of, 56% had nothing positive to say,” CNN reports.
“I’m hard pressed to think of a single thing he has done that benefits the country,” wrote one survey respondent.
An overwhelming majority of Americans say that Biden’s first year in office was more a failure (57%) than a success (41%). In contrast, Americans were about evenly split on Obama’s first year. But, curiously, more Democrats thought Biden’s first year was a success (83%) than thought Obama’s first year was a success (78%). What really hurts Biden is that just 35% of independents see his first year as a success compared to the 44% who thought the same about Obama.
CNN’s John King even had a hard time spinning this poll to make it sound better. Instead, he tried to write off the poor poll numbers as a symptom of the White House having a “messaging” problem. According to King, the White House is not effectively communicating the “legitimate successes of the Biden administration.”
CNN: 56% of Americans say "NOTHING" when asked what President Biden has done that they approve of.
"Look at how bad these numbers are." pic.twitter.com/8CUbwT1xme
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 10, 2022
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the poll is the sharp decline in his approval from the previous survey.
In the December CNN Poll conducted by SSRS, Biden’s approval was at -2, and the latest is -17. That 15 point dive is extraordinary but makes perfect sense when you look at the crosstabs. For example, after having 60% approval for his handling of the COVID pandemic last March, only 45% approve now.
One bright side for Biden is that many experts believe that the COVID pandemic is ending, but Biden shouldn’t expect a massive boost in his poll numbers when it does. Why not? Because the rest of the crosstabs look horrible. On every issue asked in the current poll, he’s underwater. On the economy, 62% disapprove, compared to 44% in March of 2021. Whether it’s education, helping the middle class, protecting democracy in America, or crime, a majority of Americans disapprove of the job he’s doing.
Even Trump, despite his low poll numbers, managed to have issues that had majority approval on, such as the economy. Biden doesn’t seem to have that anymore, suggesting that his presidency is in considerably more trouble than he realizes.
