Story Highlights
- About four in 10 Americans still approve of Biden's job performance
- Congress approval steady at 16%
- U.S. satisfaction slips to 13%, the lowest since January 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After a month that encompassed a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the start of the Jan. 6 committee hearings in Congress, and average gas prices hitting $5 a gallon amid rising inflation, President Joe Biden's job approval rating didn't change between May and June, holding at 41%.
Biden's job approval rating has registered 41% since April and has varied by no more than one percentage point from that level all year. This stability is also reflected in his underlying approval ratings from Democrats, independents and Republicans, which are 85%, 36% and 3%, respectively, in June.
The latest results are from a nationally representative Â鶹´«Ã½AV telephone poll conducted June 1-20.
More than half of the interviews for the poll were conducted after the Jan. 6 congressional hearings started being televised on June 9. Yet the poll found little change in Americans' approval of the job Congress is doing. It is 16% in June versus 18% in May. Still, Congress approval is now the lowest since the 117th Congress was seated in January 2021.
Currently, 24% of Democrats, 17% of independents and 6% of Republicans approve of Congress, all little changed from May.
U.S. Satisfaction Goes From Bad to Worse
Americans' satisfaction with the direction of the country has dipped three points over the past month to 13%, continuing the downward trend seen since March, when 24% were satisfied. Nearly nine in 10 Americans (87%) are now dissatisfied with the direction of the country.
Satisfaction is the lowest Â鶹´«Ã½AV has recorded since January 2021, when just 11% were content with the nation's direction. That was as President Donald Trump was leaving office amid furor over the Jan. 6 riots and the peak in U.S. coronavirus deaths and (at the time) infections.
Most of the recent decline has occurred among Democrats, whose satisfaction has fallen from 46% in March to 24% today. Meanwhile, independents' satisfaction has slipped from 23% to 13%, while Republicans' has held in the low single digits.
Bottom Line
Last month, 41% of U.S. adults approved of the job Biden is doing as president, 18% approved of the job Congress is doing, and 16% were satisfied with the direction of the country. Based on those figures, Â鶹´«Ã½AV observed that Americans' mood is the worst it has been in any midterm election year dating to 1974 and puts Democrats' U.S. House majority in significant jeopardy.
Nothing has caused that mood to brighten over the past month -- if anything, it has worsened, making Democrats' challenge of turning things around before the November elections only more difficult.
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Explore President Biden's approval ratings and compare them with those of past presidents in the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Presidential Job Approval Center.
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