Biden approval slips, close to presidency, Reuters/Ipsos sees

A two-day national poll found 38% of Americans approved of Biden’s performance.

Although Biden’s approval rating reached 41% last week, it has remained mostly below 40% since mid-June, despite a string of Democratic legislative victories that Biden’s allies hope will help them preserve their narrow congressional majorities in November.

Democrats are expected to lose control of the US House of Representatives and Senate in November.

With only control of the House, Republicans could freeze Biden’s legislative agenda and launch politically damaging investigations.

Biden’s overall approval rating has been below 50% for more than a year, with Americans grappling with high inflation rates and an economy battered by the COVID-19 health crisis. Biden’s lowest approval rating of 36% – in four weekly polls in May, June and July – equaled the lowest rating of his predecessor Donald Trump, whose approval rating had fallen to 33% in December 2017.

When asked to rank the nation’s biggest problems, polled this week, the economy topped the list, with a third of Republicans and a quarter of Democrats citing the economy as their top problem.

For Republicans, immigration and crime were the second biggest issues, each a top concern for one in ten Republicans.

Among Democrats, one in eight saw the environment as a top issue, and one in 10 pointed to ending national abortion rights. Reuters/Ipsos this week added abortion rights to its list of concerns for Americans to rank, a list that includes immigration and health care, an issue that has gained increased attention since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June ended the national constitutional right. To have an abortion.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted online in English in the United States collected responses from 1,005 adults, including 449 Democrats and 357 Republicans. The poll has a confidence interval — a measure of precision — of four percentage points.