Inflation dragged down US president’s approval rates long before poor debate performance focused attention on fitness.
Even before pressure mounted on United States President Joe Biden to withdraw from November’s election due to concerns about his age and fitness, he was losing the support of Americans over his handling of the economy.
Despite presiding over solid economic growth and low unemployment, Biden, who bowed out of the race on Sunday after weeks of turmoil around his candidacy, struggled to convince voters that they were better off on his watch.
In May, weeks before a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump cemented perceptions of Biden’s decline, just 23 percent of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center viewed the economy as “excellent or good”.
Much bigger shares of Americans – 41 percent and 36 percent, respectively – rated the economy as “only fair” or “poor”.
Much of the dissatisfaction came from Biden’s own voter base, with the proportion of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters who viewed the economy positively falling from 44 percent in January to 37 percent in May.
Worse for Biden, US voters consistently viewed his Republican rival Donald Trump as more trustworthy on the economy – a perception that persisted after the June 27 debate.
In a Pew poll released…
