WASHINGTON — As Joe Biden prepares to depart workplace, People have a dimmer view of his presidency than they did on the finish of Donald Trump’s first time period or Barack Obama’s second, a brand new ballot finds.
Round one-quarter of U.S. adults mentioned Biden was a “good” or “nice” president, with lower than 1 in 10 saying he was “nice,” in response to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
It’s a stark illustration of how tarnished Biden’s legacy has develop into, with many members of his personal celebration seeing his Democratic presidency as merely mediocre. About one-third described Trump as “good” or “nice” on the eve of the Republican’s departure from the White Home in 2021, according to AP-NORC polling, together with about 2 in 10 who mentioned he was “nice” — even after he helped sparked a deadly insurrection that noticed a mob of his supporters overrun the U.S. Capitol. People had been equally more likely to describe each Biden and Trump as “poor” or “horrible” — about half mentioned this characterised every president’s time in workplace — however about 3 in 10 mentioned Biden was “common,” whereas lower than 2 in 10 mentioned this about Trump.
Biden’s standing can also be a lot decrease than the final outgoing Democratic president, Obama, who left workplace with about half of Americans describing his tenure as “good” or “nice,” in response to one other AP-NORC ballot.
These findings are per knowledge launched this week by Gallup, which discovered Biden’s standing much like that of President Richard Nixon after the Republican resigned throughout the Watergate scandal. The Gallup evaluation discovered that different presidents who left with poor scores — together with Trump, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Jimmy Carter — noticed views of their presidencies develop hotter with time. However for now, few appear impressed with Biden’s time in workplace, together with a large chunk of Democrats.
“I’m not going to sound like ‘Star Wars,’ that he went over to the darkish aspect and every little thing that may be implied there,” John Cressey, a 79-year-old Democrat who lives within the Los Angeles space and does background work for movies and flicks, mentioned of Biden. “However I feel he simply misplaced the heartbeat of the nation and that’s why Trump gained.”
Amongst supporters of Biden’s celebration, solely about 1 in 10 described his presidency as “nice,” whereas about 4 in 10 referred to as it “good,” and an analogous share described it as “common.”
Cressey mentioned he noticed the 82-year-old Biden declining bodily and believes the president was more and more managed by aides. He says Biden let the state of affairs on the U.S.-Mexico border deteriorate into “a multitude.” And Cressey summed up his chagrin with Biden’s dealing with of the economic system by saying, “Go purchase a carton of eggs.”
Issues weren’t at all times so unhealthy for Biden. About 6 in 10 People permitted of the best way he dealt with the presidency as he took workplace, in response to AP-NORC polling, however by early 2022, that had fallen to about 4 in 10, the place views largely stayed for the rest of his time period.
Within the new ballot, disappointment was particularly palpable amongst Black and Hispanic People, who’ve historically leaned Democratic however shifted in larger numbers toward Trump in 2024.
The distinction with Obama was particularly putting amongst Black People. About 6 in 10 mentioned Obama, the nation’s solely Black president, had saved his guarantees on the finish of his time period, in contrast with round 3 in 10 who mentioned the identical for Biden. Equally, about 7 in 10 Black People mentioned they and their household had been higher off on the finish of Obama’s presidency whereas solely a few third mentioned that about Biden.
“I really feel as if the economic system hasn’t progressed in a constructive method since he’s been in workplace,” mentioned Evonte Terrell, 30, a gross sales supervisor at a telecommunications firm from Detroit who described himself as a “waning Democrat.”
Terrell, who’s Black, mentioned the celebration has develop into too centered on issues like local weather change and conflict whereas de-emphasizing rebuilding communities and serving to the poor. He additionally bristled at Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter, saying that, “as a father, I might do the identical” however “not everybody goes to have that functionality.”
Youthful individuals had been notably more likely to have a unfavorable view of Biden’s presidency. Solely about 1 in 10 People below age 30 say he was a “good” or “nice” president, in contrast with about 4 in 10 ages 60 or older. Roughly 6 in 10 People ages 18 to 29 say Biden was a “poor” or “horrible” president.
Terrell, going through scholar mortgage funds, additionally pointed to Biden’s efforts to ease instructional debt that had been struck down by the Supreme Court. He mentioned that amounted to years of “simply deferring” when “in any other case I might have been paying it off this complete time.”
The Biden administration helped oversee the passage of extra large-scale laws than did Trump or Obama — together with on public works, microchip production and health care and promoting green jobs. The president additionally signed the primary main gun safety bundle in many years.
Nonetheless, solely about 2 in 10 People mentioned the president made good on his marketing campaign path pledges. About 4 in 10 mentioned he tried however didn’t maintain his guarantees, and an analogous share mentioned he has not saved his guarantees.
Mark Jeanmougin, 47, who’s from Cincinnati and works in cybersecurity, voted for Trump in 2016 however backed Biden in 2020 and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
He sees Biden as a very good president who set the US up for achievement on points like local weather change whereas delivering badly wanted infrastructure funding. However, he mentioned, Biden “undoubtedly bumped into some activist judges who had been saying no to a few of his insurance policies.”
Jeanmougin mentioned Biden helped enhance the post-COVID-19 economic system and rising inflation was an anticipated consequence.
“A tough touchdown, a lot of unemployment, or a smooth touchdown with inflation,” he mentioned. “We knew that was what was going to occur. So the concept so lots of my fellow residents had been unaware or didn’t know is basically exhausting.”
In all, about half of Democrats mentioned Biden tried and didn’t maintain his marketing campaign guarantees, whereas about 4 in 10 mentioned he succeeded.
For essentially the most half, People do not assume Biden is leaving the nation in a greater place than when he took workplace 4 years in the past — with a number of exceptions.
On the problems of making jobs and prescription drug prices, People had been about as more likely to say Biden had a constructive influence as they had been to say he’d had a unfavorable influence. An analogous share mentioned he had no influence.
However many thought he’d executed extra hurt than good in different key areas. No less than half of People mentioned Biden had a unfavorable influence on the price of residing, immigration and the battle between the Israelis and the Palestinians — in contrast with about 2 in 10 who mentioned he had a constructive influence in every of those arenas.
He was additionally perceived as having extra of a unfavorable influence than a constructive one on Russia’s war with Ukraine, regardless of his administration pushing for billions of {dollars} in army support to Kyiv. The unfavorable views towards Biden concerning Israel’s war against Hamas had been notably pronounced amongst youthful voters, with barely lower than 1 in 10 People below age 30 saying he had a constructive influence on the Israeli-Palestinian battle.
About 4 in 10 People mentioned they and their households are considerably or a lot worse off than they had been when Biden grew to become president, whereas about one-quarter mentioned they’re much or considerably higher off.
Solely about one-quarter mentioned they and their households had been worse off on the finish of both Trump’s or Obama’s presidency.
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The AP-NORC ballot of 1,251 adults was performed Dec. 5-9, 2024, utilizing a pattern drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be consultant of the U.S. inhabitants. The margin of sampling error for adults general is plus or minus 3.7 proportion factors.
