President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is off to a bumpy start as the influence-peddling Scandal involving his son heats up.

On Friday, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodríguez canceled an MSNBC interview after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, The New York Times reported.

The report said the abrupt withdrawal was done so the campaign could “avoid facing a litany of questions about the president’s son, according to two people familiar with the scheduling.”

It’s a bad sign when the Biden camp dodges a left-wing cable network with a history of feeding softball questions to Democrats.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating the Scandal and has a “Bidens’ Influence-Peddling Timeline” on its website.

“Records obtained through the Committee’s subpoenas to date reveal that the Bidens and their associates have received over $20 million in payments from foreign entities,” it says.

Predictably, liberals and their corporate media allies are downplaying or ignoring the Scandal, but some Democrats — such as Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota — say it is damaging the president.

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“This is exactly, exactly why, I’m trying to raise the alarm,” Phillips told Politico on Friday after the special counsel was appointed. “It is another reason why I wish this call to action that I’m trying to inject into the Democratic Party would be heard.”

The congressman pointed out that Biden’s age and dismal poll numbers compromise his re-election campaign.

“The data, the polling is a huge risk. The president’s age is a risk,” Phillips said. “And now the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the president’s son — essentially, what, 16 months before the 2024 Election — is almost certain to ensure that this is front and center during the most consequential campaign in perhaps history.”

On Sunday, Phillips told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supports having a Democratic Primary challenger because the president’s poll numbers are sinking.

“Joe Biden right now is down 7 points in the four swing states that will decide the next election,” the congressman said. “He has historically low approval numbers.”

Indeed, Biden’s poll numbers are atrocious. According to a new Associated Press survey, a meager 36 percent of Americans approve of his economic policies.

Moreover, a majority of poll respondents — 58 percent — have “hardly any confidence” that Biden can reduce the amount of corruption in the federal government. And 46 percent have “hardly any confidence” that he can effectively handle a crisis.

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Even more shocking is that a majority of Democrats surveyed by the AP — 55 percent — do not want Biden to run for re-election.

Other polls paint a similarly bleak portrait of an embattled presidency in survival mode.

When all is said and done, you don’t need poll numbers to tell you that the United States is in a grim situation under this administration.

Biden’s dumpster-fire presidency has ushered in crippling inflation, terrifying crime waves, daily border invasions and escalating geopolitical uncertainty.

In short, the doddering 80-year-old career politician has done next to nothing to improve the lives of struggling Americans. He has to go.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.