Washington: US President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have taken a beating amid the chaotic withdrawal of US forces and personnel from Afghanistan.
The president stands at 43% approval and 51% disapproval among Americans in a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national survey that was released on Thursday.
Biden’s approval rating is down 6 points from July, and it’s the president’s lowest approval in Marist polling since taking office in January, said Fox News.
The new survey is the latest to indicate that the rocky exit from Afghanistan, ending a two-decade US military presence in the war-torn country, is taking a toll on the president’s political standing.
Biden’s approval rating had hovered in the low to mid 50s since succeeding former President Donald Trump in the White House. But his numbers started sliding last month, as the crisis in Afghanistan dominated media coverage.
The president now stands at 45%-49% approval/disapproval in an average of the last surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics, and at 46%-48% in a compilation by the polling and analysis website FiveThirtyEight.
The president has been facing a barrage of bipartisan criticism for some three weeks for his handling of the hastily organized evacuation efforts, where U.S. forces rushed to rescue as many Americans and allied civilians as quickly as possible following the lightning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
While Biden has repeatedly declared the withdrawal and evacuation a success, he’s been accused by both Republicans and some Democrats for underestimating the Taliban and overestimating the strength of the now collapsed US-backed Afghan government and military.
Biden’s approval rating drop in the Marist poll was fuelled by a 10-point plunge in support among independents and a five-point slip among Democrats over the past month.
According to the survey, 56% of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of foreign policy and 61% give Biden a thumbs down on his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll was conducted from August 26 – the day of the horrific terrorist attack at Kabul’s airport – through August 31. Live telephone operators questioned 1,241 adults nationwide. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
