President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress received a less enthusiastic reception than those of his immediate predecessors, according to a CNN instant poll of speech watchers.
Roughly half of viewers, 51%, fell in the “very positive” reaction category. A chart showed that is a lower figure than was recorded for former Presidents Donald Trump in 2017, Barack Obama in 2009, and George W. Bush in 2001, whose “very positive” scores in the same poll were 57%, 68%, and 66%, respectively.
More than 70% of speech watchers said the speech made them feel more optimistic as compared with 29%, who were more pessimistic after the address, and 58% of respondents said Biden’s outreach to the GOP was “just about right,” as compared with 38% who felt it “did not go far enough” and 4% who said it “went too far.”
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Nearly 3 in 4 respondents said Biden’s policies would move the United States in the “right direction,” as compared with 27% who said the country is going in the “wrong direction.” When broken down by issue, Biden earned the highest remarks for his policies on the coronavirus and racial justice, with 86% and 74% of respondents, respectively, saying his stances would move the country in the right direction. His lowest marks were on immigration, with only 65% of those polled saying his policies would move the U.S. in the right direction.
CNN’s panel noted the poll had a biased sample, as all respondents were tuning in to Biden’s address, and those viewing the speech are more likely to be partisan supporters of the president’s than the U.S. population at large. Results for the full sample of speech watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.4 percentage points.
“Biden’s in [a] pretty good position,” CNN’s John King said. “It’s not fantastic … [but] any time you can move the dial, keep Democrats more invested in you or move a Republican or two, that’s progress.”
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Anchor Wolf Blitzer added “they’re probably going to be happy with” those numbers at the White House.
During his speech, Biden talked about the economy, racial inequality, gun violence, and voting reform, climate change, immigration, and healthcare. He also blamed Trump, his predecessor, for obstacles he has faced during his first 100 days in office, including the southern border situation.
Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who delivered the GOP’s response to the speech, made headlines in particular for his argument against use race as a “political weapon” to push an agenda.
“Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” he said. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination, and it’s wrong to use our painful past to honestly shut down debates in the present.”
