Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to explain why polls have shown President Joe Biden is widely unpopular during Tuesday’s briefing.
Multiple polls have indicated that Americans are favoring former President Donald Trump over Biden six months ahead of the 2024 election, with one recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll finding that five out of six key battleground states have Trump in the lead.
“Why do you think Americans are so down on President Biden right now?” Doocy asked, leading Jean-Pierre to explain further. “I know you don’t like to talk about polls like the five out of six swing states that he is losing right now to somebody who is a criminal defendant. But, more broadly, it doesn’t seem like anything you guys are doing is making him more popular. Why do you think that is?”
“So, you mention a criminal defendant. Your words, not mine,” Jean-Pierre said. “So I want to be super mindful about how I answer this question because obviously that criminal defendant is also in the race for the 2024 election, so I’m gonna be super mindful there. I will speak more broadly to what the American people are going through, like, we understand. We are sensitive enough and open-minded enough to understand that not just this country, but globally, people have had to deal with a pandemic and coming out of that pandemic. Even, you think about gas prices and because of Putin’s war, what that has occurred, that led to gas prices increasing.”
“And the president had a lot to deal with when he walked in, a lot,” she continued. “A lot of crises, and this is a president that took that very, very seriously and took action.”
Doocy then alleged the administration’s plans to address the American people’s concerns have failed to make the president rise in popularity. (RELATED: CNN’s Van Jones Says Young People Are ‘Miserable’ Under Joe Biden)
“I get that you understand that people are hurting right now, why is it that nothing you’re doing to address their concerns is working?” he asked.
“What I’m saying is, we’re gonna continue to do the work. I can’t speak to the polls, right? Those are for folks who are experts, who can do a deep dive and look into that and speak to them. What I can speak to is we understand what the American people [are] feeling, we understand what they’re going through. That’s why we’re gonna continue to do the work,” the press secretary replied.
The Fox News correspondent suggested some of Biden’s policies may be a “turn-off” to Americans who once supported the president. The press secretary argued Biden’s policies, including his plan to have taxpayers pay for student debt, are “incredibly popular.”
“What the president is actually doing is popular with what the majority of Americans want to do. Even in protecting reproductive rights, something Republicans are not on the right side of history, you think about what extreme elected officials want to do, the president wants to protect and make sure we are giving a woman the right to make really difficult decisions on their healthcare.”
Voters between the ages of 18 and 29, along with Hispanics, have stepped away from supporting Biden after having largely backed him in 2020, according to a recent poll conducted by The New York Times/Sienna College. His support among the black community has fallen below 80%, the first time a Democratic candidate has seen such low support among that demographic since the Civil Rights era.
An NBC poll from January found that 48% of surveyors believe Trump is “more competent and effective” as of January 2024, while 32% said the same of Biden. A separate poll from February found Trump in the lead 47% to 42%, and found more participants to trust Trump to handle policy issues better than the incumbent president.
More Americans believe Trump has a stronger mental capacity to serve a second term, several polls have indicated.