This week’s White House report card finds President Joe Biden ending one of his most trying weeks yet.
First, the United States Supreme Court threw three strikeouts in a row at the liberal president, ruling against affirmative action in college admissions, agreeing that Americans can’t be forced to violate their religious beliefs, and junking Biden’s $400 billion promise to forgive some student loans, a proposal he once mocked.
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Second, economic reports showed inflation is stubbornly hanging around despite his claim that “Bidenomics” is winning.
Then there were reports about questionable financial dealings with his son, Hunter, and whistleblower claims of unpaid taxes. What’s more, Hunter agreed to a deal with the mother of their love child that essentially disowned her by barring the use of the Biden name.
Biden, 2019: “But why should, in fact, these people out here pay for the fact that my kids had a significant debt, but they went to Yale and they went to Penn and they went – for incredibly high tuitions.” pic.twitter.com/1NFltxQp0y
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 30, 2023
And the video library of Biden gaffes grew with mistakes, misstatements, and long, awkward pauses in speeches.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin gave the week a D-minus and said the president makes former President Jimmy Carter look good by comparison.
Democratic pollster John Zogby, however, graded the week a B-plus. He stepped back a bit and looked at the impact of the court’s strikes and said it should energize Biden’s base and help him in next year’s reelection.
Jed Babbin
Grade D-
It was another one of those weeks for President Joe Biden, his failures and corruption too big for anyone but the media and his supporters to ignore.
The growing mountain of evidence that Biden participated in first son Hunter Biden’s illegal influence-peddling schemes in Ukraine and China has become so huge that only Attorney General Merrick Garland could ignore it. Garland should be appointing a special counsel to investigate the Biden crime family, but politics overwhelm evidence in Garland’s Department of Justice. It not only includes covering up the Biden family crimes, but it also intentionally ignores Biden’s startling ineptitude. This one makes Nixon’s attempted Watergate cover-up look like small potatoes.
Biden confuses the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence while accusing the Supreme Court of not “embracing” the Constitution.
He then says “we fought a war…in 1960.” pic.twitter.com/1rXKLdpfjC
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 29, 2023
Biden, as always, showed confusion all week. At one point, he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was losing his war “in Iraq,” and at another, he was begging Putin to understand that he had no role in the attempted coup by Wagner Group commander Yevgeny Prigozhin. At least he didn’t apologize to China for its installation of an intelligence center — and a troop “training” facility — in Cuba. It ain’t a repeat of the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis, but it is another display of Biden’s weakness.
Biden was bragging that “Bidenomics” was beginning to work. As a Wall Street Journal editorial pointed out, Biden has “succeeded” in bringing us the worst inflation in 40 years and a drop in real earnings of over 3% since he took office. It’s all because Biden has spent so much federal money so quickly and recklessly.
NOW – Biden: Putin “is clearly losing the war in Iraq.”pic.twitter.com/fF8fdxfKVH
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) June 28, 2023
In a huge blow to their ideology, liberals lost affirmative action in college admissions when the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional. Biden said this isn’t a “normal” Supreme Court. It isn’t because, unlike former courts, this one actually follows the law and the Constitution. In another blow, the court on Friday ruled that Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was beyond his legislative authority and thus unconstitutional. It was, from the beginning, a cynical effort by Biden to buy votes. The SCOTUS ruling prevents Biden from spending another $400 billion or so.
Our nation and the world haven’t been in as bad a mess as this one since WWII ended. Even Former President Jimmy Carter was better than Biden.
John Zogby
Grade: B+
President Joe Biden made a few word stumbles this week, and no one got hurt. The content of his actual interviews continues to show him on top of the issues.
Despite his 2020 campaign promise to heal the divide, voters appear to be as polarized as ever. Even with a record of accomplishment, Americans continue to view the president through the prism of party and ideology. His approval rating is more in the low 40s, even as the economy and jobs grow, inflation subsides, and money is visibly spent on roads, bridges, and broadband.
If the election were held today, a multiple indicted former President Donald Trump and a personality-challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hold slight leads. Nonetheless, just the nullification of Roe v. Wade breathed new life into the Democrats running for office in 2022, and this week’s Supreme Court decisions promise several advantages to Biden going into 2024. Each decision hit hard a key group Biden needs to be reelected — LGBTQ voters, young voters with college debt, and black voters. History tells me they will be energized to vote in 2024.
I give him a good grade because the other side is engaged in overreach.
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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 weekly podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
