This week’s White House report card finds President Joe Biden still even or even up in 2024 polls despite a week of horrors headlined by a judge’s refusal to accept a sweetheart plea deal for first son Hunter Biden.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin listed the week’s woes and included a reference to emails uncovered by Judicial Watch about the first dog Commander biting several Secret Service agents and the first family’s apparent shrug at the attacks. Babbin graded the week an “F.”
SECRET SERVICE: BIDEN DOG WOULD BE ‘PUT DOWN’ IF NOT PRESIDENT’S PET
Democratic pollster John Zogby also said the week was a downer. But he focused on the positives, including the first family finally acknowledging their seventh grandchild, Hunter Biden’s daughter, improvements in the economy, and a positive 2024 poll. Zogby graded the week a “B.”
All in all, no wonder Biden left Washington Friday for a 10-day break at his Delaware beach house.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
This was a god-awful week for President Biden but you’d never know it because of the hype about more criminal charges and another possible indictment of former President Donald Trump.
We start with the White House changing its tune from “Biden never spoke to Hunter about his overseas business” to “Biden was never in business with Hunter.” There’s way too much evidence that Biden — who may have received bribes from China and Ukraine — did more than talk to Hunter about his influence-peddling business. What will they have to admit next week?
Meanwhile, the Big Lies have turned into delusions. Joe claimed to have ended cancer as we know it. Really? He also renewed his false claim to have been a wheel in the 1960s civil rights movement. It’s all untrue, but our addled president may well believe it all.
Friday night news dump: Joe Biden has finally acknowledged his granddaughter, Navy Roberts. It took him four years to acknowledge the four-year-old even existed. pic.twitter.com/M3HNCFYrmb
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) July 29, 2023
If that weren’t enough, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) obtained Facebook internal documents showing that the Biden White House was actively engaged in censoring American speech.
And to top it all off, the Justice Department sued Texas to bar deployment of mid-river barriers to keep our borders open, Biden’s dog has bitten Secret Service agents at least ten times, and they’re going after water heaters in addition to gas stoves. Raising prices of both — because of inefficiencies forced by regulations or just banning the stoves — would be, by itself, enough to justify a grade of “F” this week.
It was another week for which a grade lower than an “F” — if there were one — would be more than justified.
John Zogby
Grade: B
On a personal level, President Joe Biden did not have a good week. Following pressure from influential columnists, he finally acknowledged his seventh grandchild, something he had refused to acknowledge before.
He also watched a sweetheart plea deal between his son and a court go up in flames, meaning that Hunter Biden’s legal troubles will be in the headlines for the next several months.
On the other hand, new applications for unemployment dropped for another week; the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to slow a growing economy with less fear of an imminent recession. And consumer confidence is rising.
A new John Zogby Strategies Poll shows the president leading former President Donald Trump by four points, with a 10-point margin among independents.
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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.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies.
