Biden at 61 Percent in New Poll, Outdoing Trump as He Undoes His Agenda - The New York Times
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Feb. 4, 2021, 12:53 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2021, 12:53 p.m. ET
By Glenn Thrush and Maggie Astor
People cheered for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day last month.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times
It is still early in his term, but President Biden seems to have broken out of the red-blue trench warfare of public polling of the Trump era — hitting the 61 percent approval mark in an A.P.-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll released Thursday.
The poll, which is roughly in line with other recent surveys, shows that Mr. Biden's popularity is powered by his commitment to tackling the pandemic and other problems by consulting advisers and experts, along with near-universal approval among Democrats.
Unlike former President Donald J. Trump, whose approval never moved beyond his conservative base, Mr. Biden is making modest inroads with Republicans — earning a 27 percent approval rating, up from the low teens or high single digits in most polls taken during the 2020 campaign.
Independents, who swung for Mr. Biden in his race against Mr. Trump, approved of him by a 58-to-39 percent mark, the survey found.
Recent polls from other organizations have shown Mr. Biden with a somewhat lower approval rating, in the low- and mid-50s, with an aggregated 54.3 percent approval rating, according to RealClearPolitics.com.
But there are indications that Mr. Biden's honeymoon could be provisional.
When asked to judge the new president on a variety of criteria (from fighting corruption to managing the military to shepherding the economy) Americans who answered the A.P. poll were broadly split into three nearly equal camps — those who support him, those who oppose him, and those who are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Most presidents top 55 percent or higher in their first few months in office. Mr. Trump, who often touted (and distorted) his approval ratings, is the first modern-era president never to reach 50 percent in poll aggregations at any time during his four years in office.
The closest he came was hitting the mid-40s in the week after he took office. But his approval ratings plummeted after he instituted a ban on immigration from some Muslim countries in January 2017.
And Mr. Trump's approval numbers have fallen since the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, settling below 40 percent in most recent surveys, after which he was impeached by the House and charged with "incitement of insurrection." A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found Americans were closely divided on whether the Senate should convict him in the trial: 50 percent said yes and 45 percent said no, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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Poor Donald! Nobody loves him. Everybody hates him!
He will always have his poorly educated Always Trumper's who love him right or wrong. To them dishonest Donald can do no wrong, he's a fictionalized character in their minds and represents the "under Dog" who they will root for like some WWE wrestling villain who they think got a bad rap and is a protagonist who got cast as the antagonist. Trump could get arrested, tried for raping children and convicted by a jury and his base will claim it's all a deep state plot and that it's really Democrats who are lizard people that buy child sex slaves and eat babies. Nothing short of a back-ally lobotomy will change their minds.
Polls show President Biden has already impressed voters with his professionalism and his obvious concern for all Americans as he and his team turn our ship of state away from the scourge of Trumpism.
I think people on both sides of the aisle are just happy that the noise level has been turned way down from that of a NASCAR wreck on an hourly basis to something akin to Musak. People are sleeping better I bet too.
A lot of folks are looking a lot happier too. When I watch Stephen Colbert sometimes, he looks so happy.
I love saying President Biden!
I never used that word regarding the former occupant of the White House.
Hell.... How about the speech Biden gave from the State Department yesterday....... We haven't had that level of clarity with the Russians over the last four years for sure.
Ahhhh yes. Polls.....................
The 'bright' side of Polls ... there's always a number to cherry pick.
Good morning Jim.
Good morning to you my friend.
Apparently Biden is moving up in the polls. Those same polls showed Trump never achieved 50%...
"Apparently Biden is moving up in the polls. Those same polls showed Trump never achieved 50%..."
How that must burn the former occupant of the White House!
How predictable, supporters of the former occupant of the White House never like it when polls show the truth of how people love President Biden
And it is painfully obvious that some people don't like conflicting polls that downplay that "love"
Better than that strange critter trump wears on his head, lol.
It's not that Biden is so great, it's just in comparison to dishonest Donald even a regular Joe looks like a Saint.
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Just not tweeting insanity and lies at 3 am will be a huge improvement over our last white house occupant. The bar was left on the ground so even an elderly former senator will have no problem clearing it, he won't need any help from social media.
Are you even able to admit that Biden is at least non-abrasive when compared to Trump? Are you able to at all see the appeal and the reason why many were exhausted by Trumps continued misbehavior and divisive tweets? Can you not see how different even the first two weeks of a Biden administration has been? Or is there only bitter dismissiveness left to throw in the faces of those you apparently disagree with?
Just remember that the fed up citizens were voting more against Trump than for Biden.
The Dems could lose their slim advantage very easily
Doesn't matter, so long as orange conman, the worst president in the entire history of the US was a one term loser. It's nice having adults in charge once again.
Biden and his team brought professionalism back!
You cannot underestimate how reassuring that is...
Not if republicans continue to cater to the fringe nut cases in their party.
except that the GOP is mostly a coalition of nut cases now...
Nuttier than a Pay Day Bar!
Yes, sad.
LOL! The former occupant was never rated highly, even on his best day.
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