CHRIS CRUCIAL: How Democrats Left Biden Behind 👋

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1. Why is Joe Biden so unpopular?

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

At 8 pm eastern tonight, President Joe Biden will deliver his final major speech as president — an address aimed at framing his four years in office as a resounding success. (Watch it here on C-SPAN.)

The American public disagrees. Vehemently.

A new CNN poll paints that reality in stark terms. Biden is at or very near the lowest approval ratings of his entire term. Just 36% of people approve of how he handled the job, matching the lowest ever measured for Biden in CNN polling.

Even fewer — 33% — have a favorable feeling about Biden personally, just one point off his lowest ebb of the last four years.

The Biden presidency is broadly viewed as a failure by more than 6 in 10 Americans (61%). And on specific issues, the assessment is even worse. Consider this from the CNN poll:

Overall, 36% of US adults say they approve of the way Biden handled the presidency, matching his previous low mark in CNN polling during his term, with even fewer rating his performance positively on immigration (31%), foreign affairs (32%) or the economy (33%). His strongest issues in terms of approval ratings still prompt net-negative results, with less than half saying they approve of the way he protected American democracy (46%), handled environmental policy (44%) or dealt with health care policies (43%).

Oomph.

It’s easy to blame partisanship or Donald Trump’s misinformation efforts for the dismal state Biden finds himself in as he prepares to end a five-decade career in elected office.

But to do so would be to miss something critically important: Biden’s low poll numbers are driven by Democrats abandoning him.

Let me explain.