President Joe Biden and his team are reportedly not making any plans to change their strategy even as the president records low approval ratings and trails former President Donald Trump in the polls, people close to Biden told the New York Times (NYT).
Biden’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest, sitting at 34 percent, a 54-point drop since the beginning of his presidency, according to a Monday Monmouth University poll. Despite the floundering polls, members of Biden’s campaign and staffers in the White House told the NYT that they are not changing their course of action, and will continue their messaging strategy of comparing the president’s agenda to Republicans. (RELATED: ‘Every Angle… Hurts Joe Biden’: Hunter’s Latest Stunt May Have Thrown His Dad Into A Messy Tangle, Strategists Say)
“They’re not freaking out,” Ted Kaufman, a longtime friend of the president, told the NYT. “When you signed up for this thing, you didn’t sign up to be at 80 percent in the polls. These are genuine veterans, and they’re picked because of their ability to be calm in difficult times.”
In recent weeks, Biden has faced backlash from members of his administration and fielded harsh warnings from allies on his pro-Israel stance. A coalition of State Department staffers petitioned the White House, demanding that the president call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war while also airing some of its internal criticism of how the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) treats Palestinian civilians. Several interns wrote a letter to the president and Vice President Kamala Harris saying that they “never forget” how the “pleas of the American people” were ignored in the push for a ceasefire.
Several long-time aides of the president including Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal have voiced concerns that the president may lose the youth vote because of how close he has tied himself to Israel.
Other polls show Biden trailing Trump both nationally in key swing states. While the president touts his economic policy, commonly branded as “Bidenomics,” forty-four percent of Americans are struggling financially and just 12 percent say the economy is improving, according to the Monmouth University poll.
US President Joe Biden speaks about Bidenomics at CS Wind on November 29, 2023 in Pueblo, Colorado. CS Wind, the largest wind turbine tower manufacturer in the world, recently announced they were expanding operations as a direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
But despite the polls and criticism on a variety of issues, the Biden campaign told the NYT they believe the strategy they are using will pay off in the 2024 election. The president is also planning to visit key states in the coming months, Biden advisors told the outlet.
Biden took a trip to Wisconsin on Wednesday to tout “Bidenomics.” The campaign has hired a state campaign manager and is testing a volunteer pilot group to help get their message out to colleges as well as Black neighborhoods in Milwaukee, the NYT reported. Additionally, the campaign has paid for Google search results to give local stories on the president’s visit to the state when those in Wisconsin look up political-related news, according to the NYT.
“The very real investments, resources and work we’re putting in right now aren’t for the next poll of the day — they’re to win an election next November,” Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesman, told the outlet.