This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden finally offering his budget, one with a $6 trillion price tag, facing raging inflation, apparently satisfied with an open southern border, and comforted with a good approval rating.
Democratic pollster John Zogby provided new numbers showing Biden’s support, even from 24% of Republicans. He also has a sky-high 96% approval rating among Democrats. In grading an “A,” Zogby said, “The public likes the president, and that is what he gets rated on.”
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin, grading a “D-,” hit the administration for pushing a “big lie” on the border situation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro “Mayorkas, in congressional testimony, managed to keep a straight face while saying that our southern border was closed. This despite the fact that more than 170,000 illegal immigrants are coming across it each month,” he said in his grade.
John Zogby
Grade: A
At the end of another week, we find Biden holding on to a 54% job approval rating and only 41% giving him a negative rating.
Our own John Zogby Strategies poll released last week placed him at 59% approval and 37% disapproval. He is holding on to 96% support among Democrats, 55% among independents, and even 24% of Republicans.
<mediadc-iframe data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1622296944084,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4feb224a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1622296944084,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4feb224a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"iFrameEmbedCode":"","_id":"00000179-b816-dda8-aff9-bb7f20fe0000","_type":"00000161-b425-d761-a563-f7e77e270000"}”>iFrame ObjectHe has majority approval (52%) on handling the economy and 65% for his handling of the coronavirus. This is Memorial Day weekend, and gas prices are the highest in seven years. Inflation is raging. But the public likes the president, and that is what he gets rated on.
Jed Babbin
Grade: D-
This was another week of the “big lie” for the Biden team, beginning with Mayorkas’s statement about our southern border — for which he should have been laughed out of the room. Biden canceled one investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then, after he was bashed loudly for doing so, began another. Then, there were David Chipman (Biden’s nominee to direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, both telling the truth, but exposing more of the nonsensical Biden policies, and so it went.
Mayorkas, in congressional testimony, managed to keep a straight face while saying that our southern border was closed. This despite the fact that more than 170,000 illegal immigrants are coming across it each month, the Border Patrol is swamped, and the border is pretty much open to anyone who wants in. Mayorkas’s statement is the kind of big lie that propels dictators and despots around the world. The crisis at the border is being exported to states and cities far to the north. Tennessee is experiencing its own crisis because of the influx of illegal immigrants. On a similar note, Biden has granted temporary deportation immunity to 100,000 Haitians. Meanwhile, the government of El Salvador, the home of many of the illegal immigrants coming into the United States, is cozying up to China.
Meanwhile, in another gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden canceled Trump’s sanctions on the companies building and preparing to manage the Nord Stream II pipeline. Even Granholm couldn’t agree with that. She objected, of course, because the pipeline would be dangerous to the environment — not because it would make Germany dependent on Russian gas supplies that could be cut off any moment.
And let’s not forget Chipman, who said he wanted to ban AR-15-type rifles. He proposes to begin by requiring all such rifles to be registered with the government. Failing to do so would make millions of law-abiding gun owners into criminals if they don’t register them. (The AR-15 is the most sold kind of rifle in the nation, with millions already in private hands.)
Biden first canceled the State Department investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and then opened his own, requiring the intelligence community to investigate and report in 90 days. The only real difference between the two is the timing, but the community’s judgment, which will be that nobody can really tell what happened, will be more easily sold to the media.
The State Department has told U.S. embassies around the world to fly the Black Lives Matter movement flag on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. A couple of months ago, they were ordered to fly the gay pride flag. Do any of them bother to fly the Stars and Stripes anymore?
Next: Biden’s $6+ trillion federal budget. It’s gonna be a laugh-till-you-cry proposal.
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
