This week’s White House report card finds President Joe Biden finally hitting the 2024 campaign trail, going to the one place where he seems to still be liked — a union hall in Philadelphia.
It is a repeat of his 2020 opener when he started at a Pittsburgh union hall and declared, “I’m a union man. Period.” Since 10% of U.S. workers are unionized, he will need a broader coalition for sure.
BIDEN STEPS ONTO 2024 CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN TRUMP’S SHADOW
But the latest polls show he is unpopular while Democrats look for an alternative not named Kamala Harris.
Democratic pollster John Zogby, one of our co-report card graders, said that Biden has a good story to tell but noted the poor approval ratings of the president in grading the week a “D.” He said, “It is simply confounding.”
Conservative co-grader Jed Babbin, grading it an “F,” suggested a Biden metaphor for the week: a two-day root canal procedure.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
President Joe Biden had a root canal dental procedure that lasted two days. Thanks to his decisions and statements, the nation metaphorically had one that lasted all week.
Having made a short written statement to commemorate the 79th anniversary of D-Day, Biden had about one thousand from the LGBTQ community at the White House to celebrate gay pride month. The event was topped off by a trans influencer baring her breasts at one point. The Biden crew later banned “her” from the White House.
Biden laughed off a question about his evident corruption and alleged bribe-taking and continued to luck out due to the media’s intense focus on former President Donald Trump and his recent indictment for mishandling classified documents. No one was paying attention to anything else except for a few conservative outlets.
Meanwhile, the FBI admitted to a Senate committee that it had redacted any mention of audio recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden in a document shown last week to Republican lawmakers. In that document, an FBI informant alleged the Bidens were involved in a bribery scheme around 2015 and 2016. The FBI has become like most of the media: intent on little more than protecting the Biden crew.
Biden: “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean”pic.twitter.com/Fw4YpJtri8
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 15, 2023
The highlight of the week was Biden’s statement that “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.” Maybe he wants to drive a golden spike into a rail at the halfway point.
While all this is going on, at least one million illegal border crossers have come into the U.S. so far this year. There are reportedly 60,000 “got aways” each month. “Gotaways” are those who slip into the US and manage to avoid contact with the Border Patrol. They come in for many nefarious purposes. A significant but unknown number are Chinese men who are probably members of either China’s People’s Liberation Army or Ministry of State Security.
Inflation eased to about 4% in April, which is still too high. The Federal Reserve, not raising interest rates this month, indicated that more rate hikes are coming probably as early as July.
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, Biden is renewing his attempt to get another nuclear weapons agreement with Iran. Trump canceled that agreement in 2018, and it’s the only Trump action that Biden hasn’t managed to undo.
John Zogby
Grade: D
It is simply confounding.
His principal opponent has widened his lead among Republican primary voters after being indicted a second time. The annualized rate of inflation is down to 4%, while it was over 9% just a year ago. The unemployment rate is 3.7% as more Americans have entered/reentered the workforce. A couple of hundred thousand new jobs are being created each month. Wages are up.
? NATIONAL POLL: Harvard/Harris
PRES:
(R) Trump: 45% (+6)
(D) Biden: 39%(R) DeSantis: 41% (+1)
(D) Biden: 40%
.
GOP PRES:
• Trump — 59% (+45)
• DeSantis — 14%
• Pence — 8%
• Haley — 4%
• Ramaswamy — 3%
• Scott — 2%
• Christie — 2%Harris (B) | 06/14-15 | 2,090 RV pic.twitter.com/z8Qo4HLowH
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 16, 2023
Yet President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is stuck at 41%. And Biden is actually trailing former President Donald Trump in most head-to-head matchups. It appears that voters, including many fellow Democrats, simply think he is too old to run for reelection.
Somehow that is overriding any positive message. And clearly, Democrats do not want Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the top job. All is not lost, but today it is looking bleak for the president.
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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
