President Joe Bidenâs low poll numbers on the issues most important to voters could cause issues for Democrats in the midterms, according to ABC Newsâ political director.
During a segment of ABCâs âThis Week,â Rick Klein, the networkâs political director, broke down the presidentâs poll numbers.
âWhat youâre seeing is President Biden is a serious drag on Democratic candidates nationwide,â Klein began.
He explained, âItâs driven by his approval rating on a range of issues. He is badly underwater on all of the top issues including the big ones: inflation, gas prices.â
â is less than 30% approval rating on the issues that weâre told by voters are dominating their state of mind. Even on issues like gun violence, abortion rights, issues that he is elevating into the conversation in recent weeks, he is still significantly underwater,â Klein added.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, 28% of Americans approve of Bidenâs handling of inflation, 27% approve of his handling of gas prices, 38% approve of his handling of crime, 35% approve of his handling of gun violence, and 41% approve of his handling of abortion issues.
However, Klein pointed out that one issue where Biden is above water is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the poll, 56% approve of the presidentâs handling of the virus.
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Still, Klein said, âThe problem for Democrats and Biden is that that happens to be the issue that voters are telling us is the least likely to be animating their vote this fall.â
âAnd thatâs also spilling over into an enthusiasm gap thatâs developing. You see this in our poll with Ipsos, 13 point edge for Republicans in terms of people that say they are very enthusiastic, very eager to vote this fall,â he continued.
Finally, Klein said, âThat enthusiasm gap is a little narrower than it was last time we polled on it two months ago.â
âBut still, those are the kind of numbers that have Democrats worried about a potential wave election,â he added.
According to FiveThirtyEight, as of Monday morning, the presidentâs approval rating is underwater by double digits.
Roughly 54% of Americans disapprove of his job performance, while 40.8% approve.
At the same point in his presidency, former President Donald Trump received a 41.6% approval rating.
