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Biden approval rating flatlines below average, Harris is even lower ahead of expected 2024 WH run

March 23, 2023 | | Print Article

President Biden’s approval rating has flat-lined at 41 percent and Vice President Kamala Harris’ is even bleaker at 36 percent as the duo gears up for a possible 2024 re-election bid that Democrats seem to be unenthused about.

A new Monmouth University poll broke the catastrophic news for Democrats who seem to be lining up for a second Biden term.

Biden’s average approval rating is 43 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight. The vice president’s average rating is even lower at 38 percent.

Although no formal announcement has been made yet, it is widely expected to come in the next few weeks, and Biden has been hinting as much.

Wednesday, during the National Medal of the Arts ceremony, the president commented on author Colson Whitehead winning back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes.

“I’m kind of looking for back-to-back myself,” Biden quipped to cheers from the audience in attendance.

Last week Biden visited the west coast to fundraise for the Democratic Party and to brag about his administration’s work to bring down the cost of prescription medication, which is an issue the White House sees as a winner for the 2024 election according to the Daily Mail. The president predictably blasted Republicans and accused them of trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Social Security and Medicare.

He proclaimed that lower drug prices are a widespread issue.

“It’s a lot more popular than I am,” he said which is demonstrably true.

Once again while bashing Republican proposals, Biden invoked his dead son Beau and his brain cancer.

In March, the president released a $6.8 trillion budget that taxes the rich, targets corporations, and funds social programs such as childcare and paid family leave.

He proposed expansions to prekindergarten, childcare, paid family leave, elder care, housing, the Child Tax Credit, and Medicaid. In other words, he was pandering to the Democratic base.

Biden’s hometown, however, does not seem impressed.

Interviews with approximately two dozen Scranton voters indicate that Democrats in his hometown have grave reservations about the 80-year-old president running for office again. He is the oldest sitting US president in history and would be 86 at the end of his second term if he somehow miraculously gets re-elected and survives that long.

(Video Credit: Reuters)

“I worry about his age and his health,” Jenn Saunders, 57, who owns a downtown coffee shop and voted for Biden in 2020, asserted according to Reuters.

Scranton voters don’t seem to be overly enthused this time around about Biden running for the presidency.

National polls show that Democrats want a younger candidate, according to the Daily Mail. The tepid response to Biden running in 2024 could be a warning sign. The president’s approval rating is still abysmally low.

Many Scranton residents are understandably frustrated with their town’s lengthy economic slump which Biden is ostensibly responsible for. They also don’t like their lack of options for candidates in 2024.

“I think it’s kind of what he’s supposed to do, run again, right? That’s really what he´s supposed to do. Is there a president that didn’t go for a second run at all? But who else is there?” Kimberly Smith, 45, who is a manager at the city’s Glider Diner, asked before adding, “We just need someone fresh.”

“The idea of a Biden-Trump rematch makes me cringe,” Donald Banks, 83, who is a retired teacher and Scranton native, commented to Reuters.

He believes that he would once again be choosing “the lesser of two evils,” a sentiment voiced by others.

Oddly, coal mining used to be the life’s blood of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Now, Biden wants to eradicate it. The president only lived there until he was about 10 years old.

The area was controlled by Democrats for years until Trump came on the scene and gained the support of white, working-class voters. Pennsylvania is now seen as a swing state in presidential elections.

Despite leaving Scranton at a very young age, Biden refers to it all the time in his speeches as if he lived there his whole life. He has visited the town twice as president and a number of times on the campaign trail. But he actually lives in Delaware.

“I am proud to fight for the Scranton values that we were raised on,” Biden wrote in a 2021 letter to former mayor Jim Connors.

Connors, 76, asserts that the president embodies the underdog mentality embraced by working-class cities like Scranton. He claims he is proud of Biden for leading the fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“He went over there to help. He’s from Scranton. That’s what we do. They call this place the friendly city. That’s not just hype,” Connors told Reuters. “That’s how Joe was raised.”

He commented that if Biden wants to run again, “Let somebody step up and beat him.”

Despite the hyperbole and the propaganda, few residents’ lives have improved under the leadership of Joe Biden.

Glyn Johns, 29, is a local black activist who had hoped that having a Scranton native in the White House would solve problems for cities such as hers. She is reportedly disappointed with Biden.

Roughly one-in-five people in Scranton live in poverty, which is twice the national rate. The school district sits near the bottom of national and state rankings as well.

“I still think there should be more than street names that are changed and highways that are renamed for you. Because those highways still have potholes. People that are on Biden Street are still struggling with their businesses,” Johns candidly remarked.

Even though the black vote is credited with electing Biden, Democrats fear that some of that demographic are now growing disillusioned and are souring on the idea that politics offer solutions to their problems.

Paige Cognetti, the current Democrat mayor of Scranton, says the city has flourished under Biden, even if that has sometimes gone unnoticed. She makes that claim despite residents asserting otherwise.

The mayor said the city and region benefited from millions of COVID stimulus dollars, including paying for a new fleet of electric vehicles.

Biden is also promoting a plan to build a new rail line from Scranton to New York City.

“So, when I think about President Biden, I don’t just think about President Biden being our hometown son,” Cognetti gushed to Reuters. “I think about him ushering through an era of funding for the things that cities like Scranton need.”

It appears that Scranton residents don’t see it that way.

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