Biden approval rating ticking lower, nearing the lowest point of his presidency

U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating dipped to 39% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Monday, reinforcing nonpartisan election forecasters' expectations that his Democratic party was in for a drubbing in Tuesday's midterm elections.

The two-day national poll found that Americans' approval of Biden's job performance had dropped by one point, nearing the lowest point of his presidency.

Biden's unpopularity is helping drive the view that Republicans will win control of both chambers of Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, on Tuesday.

Taking office in January 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden's term has been marked by the economic scars of the global health crisis, including soaring inflation. This year, his approval rating drifted as low as 36% in May and June.

In this week's Reuters/Ipsos poll, about a third of respondents picked the economy as the country's biggest problem, a much larger share than the roughly one in 10 who picked crime. About one in 15 said the biggest problem was the end of national abortion rights, following the Supreme Court's June decision that struck down a nationwide right to abortion.

Reuters

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