On Wednesday night, President Joe Biden gave his farewell address as he prepares to leave office in just a matter of days before President-elect Donald Trump once more takes office. He put out some fluff about the Statue of Liberty and democracy, while touting his administration's supposed successes and warning the American people about what he's concerned about for years to come in America. Biden doesn't exactly have a leg to stand on, though. He was forced out of the race by his own fellow Democrats, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who was installed as the replacement nominee, lost handily. There's also Biden's own approval rating, which a new poll shows is looking particularly bad for him.
The farewell address aired on Wednesday night. That same day, CNN had released a poll showing that Biden is leaving office with the lowest approval rating of his term. Not only that, but his favorability rating is also close to his personal low.
Among U.S. adults, just 36 percent approve of how he handled the presidency. Seventy-one percent of his fellow Democrats and just 59 percent of liberals approve of how he handled the presidency when the results are broken up further by demographics. The CNN poll write-up speaks to that 71 percent being particularly low:
Among Democrats, Biden’s end-of-term approval rating stands at 71%, the lowest read among his own partisans in CNN national polling during his time in office. Among independents, 31% now approve of Biden’s handling of the presidency, and 8% of Republicans say the same. Biden rarely managed to push that number into double-digits among Republicans, landing at 10% or higher among Republicans in just three CNN polls over that time. Among political independents, his approval rating dropped below 40% in May 2023 and never again rose that high; he only had one poll (April 2021, around the 100-day mark of his presidency) that found majority approval among independents.
His favorable ratings are even lower, at 33 percent, just one point better than the 32 percent he had in June 2023. The CNN poll write-up also notes that this is close to the low point he's faced "since he became vice president under Barack Obama in 2009." Just 69 percent of Biden's fellow Democrats and 63 percent of liberals have a favorable opinion of him.
Oddly enough, even Harris has a better favorable rating than Biden, at 39 percent. As the write-up also notes about Harris:
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Vice President Kamala Harris leaves office with a higher favorability rating than she held shortly before her July entry into last year’s presidential race following Biden’s announcement that he would drop out of the race – 39% have a favorable view now compared with 29% in June – but perceptions of her are still underwater, with about half holding a negative view (50%). At the outset of the Biden presidency in January 2021, Harris’ ratings stood at 51% favorable to 39% unfavorable.
The poll also breaks down how adults view Biden's handling of his presidency on various topics, and they're all bad:
- Just 33 percent approve of his handling of the economy, a top issue
- Immigration, another top issue, is even worse for Biden, as 31 percent approve of his handling
- Just 32 percent approve of his handling of foreign affairs
- For all of his talk about "helping the middle class," just 36 percent approve of how he's handled that issue
Even the issues where Biden has his "best" approval rating, he still can't get a majority support:
- On national security and abortion, 40 percent approve
- On health care policy, 43 percent approve
- On environmental policy, 44 percent approve
- Biden's best performing issue is "protecting American policy," and even then, just 46 percent approve, while 54 percent still disapprove, a real losing issue for this president, given how much he talked about it at length, including on Wednesday night
The particularly damning finding is the 61 percent who see his presidency as a failure. Even Trump, whom Americans may have had polarizing thoughts about considering the events of January 6 still being fresh in their minds, had better numbers, as 55 percent said he'd be remembered as a failure days before he left office for his first term.
The only president polled who fared worse than Biden is George W. Bush, with 68 percent saying he'd be remembered as a failure. The end of his presidency was no doubt greatly affected by the 2008 recession.
Brutal final CNN poll for Joe Biden (Jan. 9-12; 1,205 adults; +/-3.2)
— Matt Holt (@mattholt33) January 15, 2025
33% view him favorably/58% unfavorable
36% approve of how he handled presidency
61% say they see Biden's presidency as a failure
Respondents also see Biden's poor ratings as being all because of his own doing. When asked what was the main reason for Biden's failure, either "his own personal shortcomings or circumstances that were beyond his control," 69 percent said the former. That being said, a similar question showed that 61 percent did also think that Biden's successes were due to "his own personal strengths" rather than "circumstances that were beyond his control."
As the poll's write-up also noted:
Regardless of whether they view Biden’s term as a success or a failure, most say his performance was due more to his own personal actions than to circumstances beyond his control. All told, 42% of Americans say Biden’s time was more of a failure due to personal shortcomings and 23% say that it was a success that rested on his personal strengths. About 1 in 5 (19%) say his presidency failed because of external circumstances and 15% felt he found success for that reason.
However delusional Biden might be about the success of his administration, these results from the CNN poll aren't surprising in the least. Last week, as we covered, Gallup released a poll from the month before showing that just 6 percent of U.S. adults believe he will be remembered by history for an "outstanding" presidency, while 37 percent believe it will be regarded as a "poor" one.
Last week, InteractivePolls highlighted over X how Biden's 538 approval rating had fallen to 36.2 percent, his lowest point. It's only gone up slightly now, to 36.7 percent as of January 16.
President Biden's approval rating in 538's average has fallen to 36.2% — the lowest point of his presidency. pic.twitter.com/3Jriuj1DXv
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) January 10, 2025
