SAUNDERS: While beltway media fawn, Biden’s poll numbers freefall

WASHINGTON

With Election Day some six months away, President Joe Biden has record-low approval ratings in national polls.

According to Gallup, Biden’s 38.7 percent approval rating is, historically, the lowest of any president in his first term in office. CNN’s latest poll, conducted by SSRS, found that 61 percent of Americans see Biden’s term to date as a failure, with his approval numbers on the economy and inflation — 34 percent and 29 percent — “starkly negative.”

The Biden economy is so sour and his presidency is so anemic that corners of America that normally would fit snugly in the Democratic National Committee’s pocket have turned away.

“It used to be PUNK, R&R to vote Democrat. I fell for it,” Cherie Currie, 64, who was lead singer for the female rock ban The Runaways, tweeted on X. “But when your party demands you live in fear, squaller, [sic] beyond your means by just buying groceries, gasoline, disrespecting our veterans, our police, our elderly, supporting CRIMINALS, chaos, riots, Hamas, FAILING Israel, demeaning us at every turn! HURTING our CHILDREN! Wasting OUR MONEY. Ineptitude with every policy! Lies and more lies.. NO MORE!

“The Democrat Party can KISS MY A$$. They don’t give a damn.”

Young voters are unenthusiastic, even about Democrats. Biden’s approval rating is below 20 percent among voters younger than age 35, according to the CNN poll.

In the final year of Biden’s term, 55 percent of voters now look back at Trump’s presidency as a success, according to CNN — a reversal from 2021, when 55 percent saw Trump’s four-year tenure as a failure.

“The economy’s falling apart now,” Trump crowed Friday, according to CNN. “Now you’re seeing it, very little growth. It’s going to get worse. Oil prices are going up and you have the college campuses all over closed down. Our country’s going to hell.”

In presidential campaign years past, such rhetoric was considered cheerleading against the U.S. economy. Now it’s a constant voice in the country’s nonstop partisan feuds.

Speaking of cheerleading, you saw a lot of it at the White House Correspondents Association dinner Saturday night. Headliner comedian Colin Jost gushed about how his beloved grandfather voted for Biden while he belittled Trump, who’s no slouch in the put-down department.

No one expects those who speak at the WHCA dinner to hit Democrats as hard as they slam Republicans. Not in this lifetime. But I remember when those up at podium made an effort to appear balanced. Now that’s gone.

When the D.C. establishment continually puts its finger on a scale that leans left, no one should be surprised if a large chunk of voters feel disrespected and ignored.

According to CNN’s SRSS survey, 49 percent of registered voters support Trump, compared to 43 percent for Biden.

Maybe the “in crowd” in Washington should try to figure out why.

A previous version of this column incorrectly attributed a poll finding to Gallup.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.