Politico reporter Betsy Swan said Sunday President Joe Biden’s plummeting job approval ratings are the result of the “totality of everything that happened since April,” and the debacle in Afghanistan is only a part of the bigger picture.
NBC Host Chuck Todd presented a poll evaluating Biden’s approval rating among independent voters during a Sunday episode of “Meet the Press.”
“You can see his approval rating sitting at 36% now. In April, it was over 50,” Todd said of the poll’s results. “They [independents] react to what’s happening.” (RELATED: Biden’s Average Approval Falls Below 50% For The First Time As President)
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“It’s a nightmare number for the White House,” Swan weighed in on the data. “I talked with a Republican strategist about this whole situation yesterday. And what that person said is that Afghanistan — that horror in a vacuum — probably would not have significantly damaged Biden’s poll numbers the way we’ve seen them change over the last few months.”
The Politico reporter added that Biden’s poll numbers also reflect voters’ dissatisfaction with his administration’s handling of COVID-19, immigration and inflation.
“It gives Republicans an opening to argue that things are spiraling out of control for the White House,” Swan claimed. “Whether or not that’s accurate, this number tells you what you need to know at least in terms of the way that this administration … are communicating to the American people and to these persuadable independents how exactly they’re governing.”