President Joe Biden responded to a new CBS/YouGov poll that found a majority of Americans don’t believe he is “competent, focused, or effective in the job,” following the Afghanistan withdrawal.
According to the poll, the percentage of Americans who believe the president is competent dropped from 56% in April to 49%. When it comes to whether Biden is focused, only 48% of Americans currently believe he is compared to 56% in April. Only 47% of Americans believe Biden is effective, an 8% decrease since April.
A reporter questioned Biden about the poll Sunday, saying, “The poll also found that based in part on what’s transpired in the past week, a majority of Americans — forgive me, I’m just the messenger — no longer consider you to be competent, focused, or effective at the job.”
Biden replied, “I haven’t seen that poll.”
He laughed and proceeded to defend his decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, explaining, “I had a basic decision to make. I either withdraw America from a 20-year war, that depending whose analysis you accept cost us $150 million a day for 20 years or $300 million a day for 20 years.”
Watch his remarks below:
WATCH: President Biden laughs when told new CBS/YouGov poll shows a majority of Americans don't believe he is "competent, focused, or effective in the job." pic.twitter.com/rDAW3CEgKl
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 22, 2021
He asked, “The question is when is the right time to leave?” adding, “I am not about to send your son and your daughter to fight in Afghanistan.”
Biden argued his “job is to make judgments, my job is to make judgments no one else can or will make.”
According to the president, the U.S. was considering extending efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan past the deadline of August 31. Still, he told reporters, “Our hope is that we will not have to extend.”
A White House official said the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of roughly 37,000 people since August 14. Approximately 42,000 people have been relocated since the end of July.
