Joe Biden is seeing some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency as he prepares for his re-election fight against a Republican nominee in 2024.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Sunday shows the president with the approval of little more than a third of Americans, while he simultaneously trails his 2020 opponent (and likely 2024 rematch contender) Donald Trump by seven percentage points.
It’s a very poor showing for Mr Biden, who is seeking a second term on the back of his legislative wins in the first two years of his presidency, as well as a strong showing by his party in the 2022 midterm election contests last fall that stopped Republicans from taking the upper chamber of Congress.
He announced his candidacy at the end of April following months of insistences from White House staffers that he planned to do so, and amid polling that had shown during that same time period that a majority of Democrats would prefer another candidate.
Mr Biden’s approval rating sat at 36 per cent in the new poll. In a hypothetical general election matchup for 2024, the president trailed Mr Trump by a margin of 44 points to 38 points, with a large number of Americans undecided. At the same time, he trailed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in another hypothetical matchup, 42 per cent to 37 per cent.
His approval rating has dropped six points in two months in the Post/ABC survey, and more worryingly than ever is the number of Americans with concerns about his mental fitness, expected to be a top attacking point for the GOP in 2024 — just 32 per cent of survey respondents were confident that Mr Biden had the mental acuity to perform his job. The poll noted that 51 per cent of Americans held that same confidence in 2020, when he was a candidate for office.
The latest poll was conducted between 28 April to 3 May, among 1,006 adults living in the US. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
On Friday, the president was asked in an interview by MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle why he believes he is the best choice to run in 2024, despite concerns about his age.
"Because I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom," he responded.
"I know more than the vast majority of people,” the president went on to boast. “I’m more experienced than anybody who has ever run for the office and I think I've proven myself to be honorable as well as also effective."
