A new poll released by NBC News on Sunday shows more than two-thirds of Americans lack confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to handle the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The survey asked participants to answer the following question: How much confidence do you have in Biden’s ability to respond to the war in Ukraine?
Of the 1,000 adults polled, 71 percent said they had “just some” or “very little” confidence in Biden’s ability to manage the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Just 28 percent said they had “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in the president.
The poll was conducted prior to Biden’s trip to Europe, where White House officials were forced to walk back multiple gaffs made by the commander-in-chief, including one unscripted comment in which Biden declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said during a speech in Warsaw, Poland over the weekend.
“The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” a White House official subsequently explained in a statement. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
On Saturday, Biden also called the Russian president “a butcher” for causing a humanitarian crisis.
In addition to questioning Biden’s ability to manage the Eastern European crisis, the poll also found that Biden’s overall job approval rating has plummeted to 40 percent, the survey’s lowest score since Biden took office. More than half of the participants also disapproved of Biden’s performance so far.
“What this poll says is that President Biden and Democrats are headed for a catastrophic election,” said GOP pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt.
“You cannot get down to the low 40s in presidential approval unless you have strained your own base,” he added.
Horwitt noted that Americans are looking for “greater certainty and stability” following the chaos of the 2020 election.
“Whether it is at home or abroad, these expectations have not been met,” Horwitt said.
With the midterm elections just around the corner, the poll found 46 percent of registered voters would rather see Congress controlled by Republicans, whereas 44 percent would prefer to have Democrats remain in charge.
This is the first time since 2014 that the GOP has led on the question of who should control the legislature.
