President Joe Biden is running for re-election even as polls show a majority of Americans are not in favor of it.
And on Monday, a photographer’s face at the White House seemed to capture the mood most voters are feeling now that he announced his campaign.
A video showed the president flailing his arms around before appearing to ask for directions.
Biden then walked onto a stage with his arms outstretched and looked around.
He appeared to reach out toward a photographer who lowered her camera, seemed to wrinkle her nose, and give the president some serious side-eye before pulling away.
Watch the moment below:
What is happening here? pic.twitter.com/iwroyt2toa
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 1, 2023
Most people do not really know what their face looks like, and this photographer was probably just trying to move out of the way and figure out where to go for her next shot. It is also not clear how close his hand was to her because cameras can distort the image.
But if there is an image that seems to encapsulate how many Americans feel about Biden right now, it was the look she gave him while his hand is outstretched.
While Biden once enjoyed approval ratings in the 50s, he has hovered in the low 40s for much of the last year as Americans appear to have soured on him — and not just Republicans and independents either.
ABC News’ Martha Raddatz traveled to Pennsylvania to speak to voters in a state that was crucial to Biden’s 2020 victory. She asked Elaina Symes, a 21-year-old student at Temple University, if she was excited by the president’s re-election announcement.
“Not particularly. I’m more interested in a progressive candidate,” Symes responded.
Raddatz asked, “What do you like about Joe Biden?”
The question sparked a 10-second pause. Symes laughed then said, “Um… uh… that he’s not Trump.”
Another student, Jackson Rennix, told Raddatz, “I would say that he’s way too old and very unfit to be president.”
Soneyet Muhammad, who supported Biden in 2020, said her response to his re-election announcement was “regret, disappointment, frustration.”
It seems they are not alone either. An NBC News poll recently found 70% of Americans said they do not want Biden to run. Fifty-one percent of Democrats said the same.
CNN’s political director once likened lights around the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., to “extensions of Joe Biden’s arms embracing America.”
But after years of dealing with high inflation and gas prices, supply chain issues, and an aggressive push to move to electric vehicles and green energy, most Americans do not seem to want Biden’s embrace any longer. However, they may begrudgingly tolerate it if they do not like the Republican nominee in 2024.
