This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden out of town after another miserable week punctuated by a much-worse-than-expected jobs report, a likely delay on a coronavirus booster shot, Hurricane Ida ravaging towns that then lost power, and the continuing fallout after the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden himself appeared to be rattled by the week when he talked about the jobs report Friday and sounded more like former President Jimmy Carter giving his “malaise speech.”
The polls agreed, giving him his lowest approval rating yet with some showing majority support for Congress to open impeachment hearings for his role in directing the Afghan withdrawal. Biden supporters, however, were quick to note that even as bad as it is, the president’s jobs rating isn’t under where former President Donald Trump was at this stage of his young presidency.
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded a D+, calling it “a lousy August.” Conservative grader Jed Babbin continued with his string of Fs, noting that Biden “managed another horrific week.”
John Zogby
Grade: D+
Biden’s average approval rating is 45%, down 10 percentage points over the last three weeks. The latest polls that straddle the last few days of August and early September are averaging 42%-43% approval and majority disapproval. Even worse, he has only a 42% approval on handling the economy, the same on handling foreign policy — but only 32% on handling immigration. He certainly gets better ratings on handling COVID-19 than his predecessor, but these are all not good numbers.
August generally seems to be the cruelest month for Democrats, but Biden has got to get things under control. He is being forceful in his decision to leave Afghanistan, and voters agree with him. But huge numbers do not support how the evacuation has played out.
Is the president in trouble? No, as things go, 45% is nowhere near where his predecessors bottomed out. The new report on a slowdown in new jobs in August, largely due to worries about the spike in coronavirus cases, only adds fuel to the fire. But he needs victories. Getting pounded by the press, together with an economy that is only growing for some, will not do.
Republicans are emboldened by his slide, so he will not likely get any GOP support on anything. The pressure is on. For now, a lousy August.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
Biden had another week during which his performance didn’t rise to a high enough standard that it could be graded as merely deplorable. With Biden and his Cabinet members’ performance on the Afghanistan retreat, the president managed another horrific week.
I’ve always admired our British cousins’ way with words. Some members of the British Parliament are saying that Biden is “gaga” or “doolally.” (The latter term comes from British colonial India. In the 19th century, the Brits sent insane troops to an asylum in the town of Deolali.) Biden and his team lived up to that standard consistently. He self-graded the Afghanistan evacuation as an “extraordinary success.” This despite the fact that he abandoned hundreds of U.S. citizens to the tender mercies of the Taliban, the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and whatever other terrorists were on hand. How dare he leave them behind?
His self-grading came after he’d promised those people that no one would be left behind. Thousands of our Afghan allies were also left behind. Meanwhile, many unvetted Afghans, at least a few of whom are undoubtedly Taliban or al Qaeda or ISIS members, were brought to the United States.
Biden used the same “no one left behind” message in his statement to Hurricane Ida victims. How much can they believe him? How can anyone believe him after reading the transcript of his July 23 conversation with then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani when he urged him to lie by saying that the fight against the Taliban was going well?
Meanwhile, reports of Taliban door-to-door searches, summary executions, and business as usual for them are becoming commonplace. Having reconquered Afghanistan and brought America to its knees, the Taliban have “built back better.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Taliban had promised not to harbor Islamic terrorists. Someone ought to educate him on the fact that the Taliban are Islamic terrorists. Their allies are the aforementioned al Qaeda, as well as the Haqqani network and others of equal terroristic expertise. Meanwhile, national security adviser Jake Sullivan wouldn’t rule out giving the Taliban aid, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said our military might work with the Taliban against ISIS. You can’t make this stuff up.
Biden and Blinken insist we are going to work with the Taliban to continue to get Americans out of Afghanistan. Maybe this means we’ll be paying billions in ransom to get them out. Stay tuned.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
