Bidens job approval drops to 44% amid widespread criticism of Afghanistan: POLL | Connect FM | Local news radio

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Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz

(NEW YORK) – President Joe Biden’s job approval rating fell underwater in the latest ABC News / Washington Post poll amid widespread disapproval of his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, including some blame on Biden for the conditions that led to last week’s devastating. Kabul airport attack.

Overall, in a sad coda to the nearly 20-year, trillion-dollar effort, only 36% of Americans say the war was worth fighting. There was 77% support for the US withdrawal; the sticking point is how Biden handled it: 60% disapprove.

Hit by the crisis, its overall job approval rating in this poll, conducted for ABC by Langer Research Associates, fell to 44%, with 51% disapproval down 6 percentage points from approval and up 9 in disapproval since the end of June. The intensity has turned decidedly negative: many more now strongly disapprove, 42%, than strongly agree, 25%.

See PDF for full results, graphs and tables.

A significant 44% think the pullout has left the United States less immune to terrorism, while only 8% think the country is safer as a result. (The others see no difference.) One factor: Almost half, 46%, are not convinced that the United States can identify and exclude possible terrorists in the ranks of Afghan refugees.

Yet another result marks a humanitarian boost despite this concern for security: 68% claim that the United States welcomes Afghan refugees after they have been checked for security, compared to 27% who oppose it. That’s a lot more support than Americans expressed for accepting Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees in 2015, 43 percent.

Biden and blame

Only 26% of the public both support the withdrawal of US forces and approve of the way Biden handled it. Sixty-nine percent express criticism instead: 52% who support the withdrawal but disapprove of the way Biden handled it and 17% who oppose the withdrawal.

Another measure simply asks whether Americans approve or disapprove of Biden’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan. On this point, 30% approve, with, as indicated, 60% disapprove.

What’s more, 53% say his handling of the withdrawal bears some blame for the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. servicemen and more than 170 Afghans last week – much to blame, 38%, and a good deal, 15%.

Approval

Biden took office with 67% approval for his management of the transition, but that quickly declined to 52% job approval in April, remained roughly stable at 50% in June, and fell to 44% now.

In poll data since the Harry Truman administration, only two presidents have had a lower approval rating at this point in their tenure: Donald Trump, at 37% in August 2017, and Gerald Ford, also at 37% , in March 1975.

There are dramatic gaps in overall approval of Biden – 18 points higher among women than men (53% to 35%), 23 points higher among members of racial and ethnic minority groups than whites (59 % vs. 36%), 24 points higher among adults with a higher education degree compared to those without a college degree (63% versus 39%) and 28 points higher among urban residents than those in rural areas ( 52% against 24%; it’s 43% in the suburbs).

Lagging since June, Biden’s approval is down especially among men (down 10 points), city dwellers (down 10), independents (down 9), Democrats (down 8 ) and slightly among whites (down from 6). It is essentially unchanged among women, suburban dwellers, Republicans, and racial or ethnic minorities.

The drop among men reflects their much higher likelihood of blaming the Aug. 26 airport bombing on Biden’s handling of the withdrawal: 62% of men share this view, compared to 45% of women.

Supporters

The political differences are very clear. Biden only has 8% overall approval from Republicans and 36% from Independents, compared to 86% among Democrats. It’s 13% among the Conservatives, 53% among the moderates and 69% among the Liberals.

The president’s rating drops particularly among Democrats with regard specifically to his handling of the situation in Afghanistan. Here he gets 56% approval within his own party, 30 points lower than for his overall job performance.

Partisan differences are diminishing in another measure: Majorities across the political spectrum support the acceptance of filtered Afghan refugees – 79% of Democrats, 71% of Independents and, less, but still 56% of Republicans. The results are similar in ideology, with accepted refugees supported by 80% of liberals, 77% of moderates and 58% of conservatives. Support is lowest, though still in the majority, among the least educated adults – 54% among those with less than high school.

Methodology

This ABC News / Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone from August 29 to September 7. 1, 2021, in English and Spanish, from a random national sample of 1006 adults. The results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. The partisan divisions are 30-24-36%, Democrats-Republicans-Independents.

The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Maryland. See details on the survey methodology here.

Copyright 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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