Biden approval slips to 40%, Reuters/Ipsos finds

[October 05, 2022]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating edged lower this week and was close to the lowest level of his presidency, with just five weeks to go before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday found.  

U.S. President Joe Biden takes a selfie during a Democratic National Committee rally at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, U.S., August 25, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The two-day national poll found that 40% of Americans approve of Biden's job performance, down from 41% a week earlier.

The president's sagging popularity, which drifted as low as 36% in May and June, has helped drive expectations that his Democratic Party will lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November, and possibly the Senate as well.

Taking office in January 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden's term has been marked by the economic scars of the global health crisis, including soaring inflation.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted online in English throughout the United States, gathered responses from 1,003 adults, including 448 Democrats and 383 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of four percentage points.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Grant McCool)

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