Biden approval rating slips to 50 percent in AP poll

President Biden’s job approval rating has slipped to 50 percent in the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll as he faces mounting criticism over his handling of issues including the military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the thousands of Haitian migrants at the Southern border. 

The survey, conducted from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27, found that roughly 49 percent of respondents disapprove of Biden’s overall job performance a little more than eight months into office. 

The approval rating marks a drop from the 54 percent measured in an August AP-NORC poll, and 59 percent in July. 

Other recent surveys have found the president under water. A Gallup poll from last week showed Biden with only a 43 percent approval rating, down 16 points since August.

Friday’s AP-NORC poll found that Biden’s approval among Democratic respondents has decreased slightly since July, from 92 percent to 85 percent, while a much larger drop has occurred among subjects who identify as independents, from 62 percent in July to 38 percent last month. 

Approximately 47 percent of respondents overall have a positive view of Biden’s handling of the economy, though only 1 in 10 Republicans gave Biden positive marks, compared to 8 in 10 Democrats. 

The poll also found low approval for Biden’s handling of the complete U.S. military evacuation from Afghanistan, which preceded the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country. 

The withdrawal and evacuation of Americans and vulnerable Afghans from the country was also marred by an ISIS affiliates’s suicide bombing attack on Kabul’s international airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 200 Afghan civilians. 

Only 34 percent of U.S. adults included in Friday’s AP-NORC poll said they approved of Biden’s Afghanistan policy, while 65 percent gave the president negative marks. 

However, the AP noted Friday that some survey respondents who had mixed feelings on Biden’s job performance in follow-up interviews said they still preferred him to former President Trump, who many argued initiated a lot of the problems Biden is being forced to address.  

The poll was also conducted amid the height of backlash against the Biden administration’s deportations of thousands of Haitian migrants who had gathered under a bridge near a Texas border town. 

Photos and videos of some border agents on horseback aggressively chasing down migrants also sparked further pushback, with many arguing that the administration was not acting humanely in carrying out its immigration policy. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied that the deportations of migrants were inhumane or unethical, defending the use of Title 42 to immediately expel migrants who travel to the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Friday’s poll, which included nearly 1,100 U.S. adults, reported a margin of error of roughly 4 percentage points.