Biden approval rating falls to 36%, matching record low: Reuters/Ipsos poll

[July 20, 2022]  By Jason Lange
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating fell to 36% this week to tie the lowest rating of his 19 months in the White House as inflation takes its toll on American life, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday. 

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden walks past solar panels while touring the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, New Hampshire, U.S., June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

The two-day national poll found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Biden's job performance.

Biden's approval rating has been below 50% since August 2021 and has hovered around its record-low since first hitting it in May, raising alarms his Democratic Party is on track to lose control of at least one chamber of Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm election. Biden's rating fell three percentage points from 39% a week earlier.

Biden's popularity has suffered from a surge in inflation, which rose to a 40-year high in June at 9.1%.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine helped drive fuel prices higher. The COVID-19 pandemic has hindered global supply chains.

Biden's approval rating within his own party fell to 69% this week from 74% a week earlier. Only 11% of Republicans approve of his performance in office.

Biden's lowest ratings have rivaled the lows of his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose popularity bottomed out at 33% in December 2017.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English throughout the United States. The latest poll gathered responses from a total of 1,003 adults, including 437 Democrats and 377 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of four percentage points.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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