Biden job approval at 43 percent amid low marks on economy, pandemic: NBC poll

President Biden’s job approval rating sits at 43 percent, according to an NBC News poll released on the anniversary of his inauguration, with his handling of various issues receiving lower ratings.

This approval rating for January is roughly the same rating he received when NBC conducted the poll in October, with the disapproval rating remaining the same as well.

When it comes to Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, 44 percent of U.S. adults polled said they approved of Biden while 53 percent disapproved. Biden’s worst rating was on the economy, with 60 percent saying they disapproved the job he is doing in this area and 38 percent saying they approved.

Over the course of the past year, Biden has effectively seen his approval rating drop by 10 percent in the NBC News poll.

“This poll would have to be described as bleak, discouraging and truly terrible,” Bill McInturff, Republican polling partner at Public Opinion Strategies, said.

“A year into his presidency, Joe Biden’s standing with the American people is diminished, and he is a smaller figure than he was when he entered the White House,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.

Regarding Biden’s ability to compromise, 43 percent of adults surveyed said they felt Biden was too unwilling to compromise. Despite his less-than-stellar approval ratings, the majority of adults said he had performed “just about as expected,” with 59 percent saying so.

Another 36 percent said Biden had done worse than their expectations of him and 5 percent said he had exceeded their expectations.

Amid the waning approval ratings in a number of surveys, Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he doesn’t believe opinion polls.

“I don’t believe the polls,” Biden said when asked about how he planned on winning back moderates and independents.

According to Gallup this week, Biden ended the first year of his presidency with an approval rating of 48.9 percent, lower than many other presidents, but higher than his immediate predecessor former President Trump.

NBC noted that Biden’s one-year approval rating was the lowest it had recorded for a U.S. President, apart from Trump.

The NBC News survey was conducted among 1,000 adults from Jan. 14-18. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.