WASHINGTON (AP) – Two weeks after a new government, a majority of Americans say they have at least some confidence in President Joe Biden and his ability to manage the myriad crises facing the country, including the raging coronavirus pandemic.
According to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Inquiry, 61% agree with the handling of his work in his first day in office.. While the bulk of Biden’s support is from fellow Democrats, about a quarter of Republicans say they approve of his earlier tenure.
Even in a moment of deep national division, the numbers suggest that Biden, as with most of his recent predecessors, may enjoy something of a honeymoon period. According to Gallup’s poll, almost all modern presidents had an average of 55% or higher approval during their first three months in office. There was one exception: Donald Trump, whose approval in Gallup polls never exceeded 50%, not even at the beginning of his presidency.
Biden’s position with the public will quickly receive substantial tests. He inherited from Trump a pandemic that was out of control, a slow deployment of key vaccines, deep economic uncertainty and the shocking outbreak of the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. It is a historical confluence of crises that historians have compared to what Abraham Lincoln encountered before the Civil War or Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the depths of the Great Depression.
Biden’s advisers know that the new president will be quickly judged by Americans based on his handling of the pandemic, which killed more than 450,000 people. in the US urges Congress to pass a $ 1.9 billion relief package These include funds for the distribution of vaccines, the reopening of schools and the state and local governments that are being washed away under the pandemic.
“We must grow big, not small,” Biden told House Democrats on Tuesday. He indicated he could garner his $ 1.9 billion proposal, but not as far as some Republicans hope. A group of GOP senators proposed their own $ 618 billion package.
About three-quarters of Americans say they have at least some confidence in Biden’s ability to deal with the pandemic, while about a quarter have almost none. Confidence is still measured – at most 4 out of 10 say they have “a lot” of confidence in Biden to deal with any issue asked in the poll.
Biden has tried from the beginning to distinguish his approach to the pandemic and the government as a whole, from Trump. He empowered public health officials and other experts and put them at the forefront of information sessions on COVID-19 and other policy issues, unlike the former president, who regularly clashed with members of his coronavirus task force..
According to the AP-NORC survey, about 8 out of 10 trust Biden at least to some extent to incorporate the advice of experts and advisers into its decision-making. About three-quarters have a lot of confidence in Biden’s ability to run the White House effectively.
An AP-NORC poll in December showed that Americans have identified the 2021 pandemic and the economy as their top priorities for the US government. The two issues are directly related to the pandemic plaguing businesses across the country and creating economic uncertainty while states and cities are struggling with public health constraints.
About two-thirds of Americans say they have at least some confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the economy and work. This is similar to his assessments of the public about his approach to health care, race relations and climate change.
In his first two weeks in office, Biden signed a blizzard of executive orders on these policy priorities and others, primarily aimed at undoing the actions of the Trump administration. Among them: rejoining the Paris climate agreement, the suspension of new oil and gas leases on public lands and the reversal of a travel ban on Trump from people from several Muslim countries.
But executive action is inherently limited in scope, and Biden needs Congress to step in to help him pass the more comprehensive aspects of his agenda. He has the least democratic majority in the House as well as in the Senate, which means he will need Republican support for his agenda, or that he will have to work through government changes that could make the legislation pass with fewer votes.
Only 20% of Americans say they have a lot of confidence in Biden’s ability to work with Republicans in Congress, but 45% say they are somewhat confident.
Tom Tierney, 65, of Richland, Washington, voted for Biden in November, saying he was skeptical of Republicans’ willingness to work with the new president. He urged Biden not to waste time if GOP leaders pursue his agenda.
“I think Biden will eventually have to play hardball and say, you know what, you do not really want to compromise,” said Tierney, who described himself as a moderate independent.
Biden has already faced enormous headwinds after winning the election, but the crises facing the country have escalated following the January 6 riots at the Capitol. The uprising has shown the extent to which Trump’s false attacks on the integrity of the election resonated with his supporters and the threat posed by the democratic institutions of the country.
In his inaugural speech, Biden noted both the durability and fragility of American democracy, a particularly clear message as he spoke from the same Capitol steps that had just been overturned by the pro-Trump mob just two weeks earlier.
A majority of Americans – 70% – say they think Biden respects the country’s democratic institutions.
Miguel Castillo, 39, of Columbus, Georgia, voted for Trump in 2020 and has yet to be impressed with Biden’s opening moves. Yet he said he was hopeful for the sake of the country that the new president would succeed.
“Whatever he does, it affects all of us as Americans,” Castillo said. “I hope his presidency is a good presidency. I do not want him to fail. I honestly do not. ”
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The AP-NORC poll among 1,055 adults was on 28 January to Feb. 1 using a sample of NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel, which is likely to be representative of the U.S. population. The sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
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Online:
AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.