President Biden’s approval rating after eight months in office has dipped to 43 percent, according to a new Gallup poll released Wednesday, the lowest level of support the firm has recorded for the first-term president.
Gallup’s poll, conducted from Sept. 1 to 17, also marked the first time a majority disapproved of Biden’s job performance, with 53 percent of U.S. adults indicating they had a negative view of his presidency.
Biden’s approval rating has remained high among Democrats, though it reached its lowest this month at 90 percent, with only 6 percent of Republicans this month giving Biden high marks.
Among independent voters, Gallup recorded the lowest approval rating for Biden to date, at 37 percent, a significant drop from his high of 61 percent measured during his first month in office.
The latest Gallup poll was conducted following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, with Biden’s efforts to completely remove the U.S. military presence from the country overshadowed by the Taliban’s rapid consolidation of power 20 years after the U.S. first toppled the militant group.
Biden received bipartisan criticism over his handling of the chaotic efforts to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans from the country, especially after ISIS’s Afghanistan affiliate carried out a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians.
The president has continued to defend his decision to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Aug. 31, arguing that ongoing efforts to evacuate the Americans and Afghan allies who remain in the country would be much safer if done through diplomatic means.
