Biden slides in another poll: 53% of Florida voters disapprove of his performance during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal
President Joe Biden's approval rating for his handling of the situation in Afghanistan continues to slide, with voters in the important 2024 state of Florida giving him the thumbs down.
About 53 per cent of respondents in a new Quinnipiac University poll gave Biden negative marks, compared with 40 per cent who approved of his job. Another 7 per cent said they were unsure.
Biden lost Florida to President Donald Trump by more than three points in last November’s election. He's expected to make a play for it again in 2024.
President Joe Biden's approval rating for his handling of the situation in Afghanistan continues to slide
In comparison, the poll found a split opinion on Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, with 47 per cent in favor and 45 against. DeSantis is up for reelection in 2022 and is being talked about as a 2024 presidential contender.
The poll was taken between Aug. 17 and 21, before Thursday's explosion outside the Kabul airport. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 points.
Biden enjoyed high marks in the first six months of his presidency but the situation in Afghanistan, where thousands of Americans and U.S. allies are trying to get out, has changed that.
Earlier this week just 41 per cent of Americans approved of his job as president in a new survey.
Biden, whose approval has hovered around the 50 per cent mark in other recent surveys, is 'underwater' with a disapproval rating of 55 per cent in the new USA Today / Suffolk University poll.
'Today, President Biden's overall approval has taken a turn for the worse due to his awful job performance rating on Afghanistan,' David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center, told the paper.
President Joe Biden's approval rating was at just 41 per cent in a new USA Today / Suffolk University poll
'His approval on immigration and the economy are also upside down. The only issue keeping him remotely in the game is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he is barely at 50%.'
The survey was taken during days of searing images from the packed airport in Kabul.
It follows an apparently climb-down of his approval amid the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Biden's approval rating of the pandemic stood at 50 per cent, but just 26 per cent approved of his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan after the nation's two-decade war.
People who want to flee the country continue to wait around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 24, 2021
People wait to enter to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, to flee the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 23 August 2021
This comes despite public backing of his decision to pull out U.S. troops, by a margin of 53 to 38.
A strong majority of 62 per cent disapproved of the way the administration handled withdrawal.
Kabul fell in a matter of days amid Taliban gains after Biden announced he would pull all U.S. troops out of the country before Sept. 11th.
An NBC News poll released Sunday put Biden's approval rating at 49 per cent – the lowest of his presidency and the first time he had gone below 50 per cent as president.
That poll was taken between August 14 and August 17, when the sudden fall of Kabul was still being absorbed, but amid rising infections and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus.
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