At the risk of beating a dead horse today, I will continue my discussion of how President Biden’s decision to withdraw our military out of Afghanistan — before getting our civilians and allies out — was one of the worst presidential decisions ever. And notice I said: “one of.” There are others, of course.
The reason I continue on this theme again today is because a new Rasmussen poll released yesterday morning found that 52% of likely voters believe Biden should RESIGN over his handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Only 39% think he should not resign. That’s huge!
Breaking that number down, 75% of Republicans think he should resign; a surprising 48% of Independents agree; to only 32% of Democrats who think he should step down.
Perhaps more telling, Rasmussen asked likely voters if they agree with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s blistering statement last week:
“I think Joe Biden deserves to be impeached because he’s abandoned thousands of Afghans who fought with us and he’s going to abandon some American citizens because he capitulated to the Taliban to a 31 August deadline.”
A supermajority (60%) agreed with Senator Graham’s statement above, while 37% disagreed, that President Biden should be impeached if he refuses to resign. But there’s more.
If Biden were to resign or be removed through impeachment, Vice President Kamala Harris would then become president. Most voters don’t think the VP is ready for that job. I happen to agree.
Only 38% say Harris is qualified to assume the duties of being president according to Rasmussen. A whopping 58% view Harris as “Unqualified” to assume the duties of the president, including almost half, 47%, who say she is “Not At All Qualified” to become our Commander-In-Chief.
In case you haven’t heard it, Ms. Harris was consistently ranked as the most liberal member of Congress when she was a senator. In 2019, GovTrack, a non-partisan organization that tracks bills in Congress, ranked Harris as the “most liberal compared to All Senators” including even Bernie Sanders.
President Biden’s Daily Approval Rating as tracked by Rasmussen has plunged to 42% as of yesterday, down sharply from 50+% before the Afghanistan withdrawal. Among likely voters, 56% disapprove, including 47% who Strongly Disapprove. A Reuters/IPSOS poll released on Monday showed Mr. Biden’s approval rating below 40%.
Then there’s the dogged question of whether President Biden is really in charge and making his own decisions, or are others behind the scenes making decisions for him. Rasmussen surveyed this question as well, and the results are quite surprising. Only 39% of likely voters believe the president is making his own decisions, whereas 51% believe others are making decisions for him. 10% were not sure.
Trouble For Democrats
In Washington, Biden’s plummeting approval ratings are causing headaches for his fellow Democrats. With a tiny seven-seat majority in the House and historical trends already favoring Republicans to win a majority next year, Democrats had been counting on Biden’s prior public approval to boost their chances of hanging on to their slim majority.
But that hope was already fading even before the latest disaster in Afghanistan. In July, the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way released a study highlighting what they said was Democrats’ “economic trust gap” with voters. This trust gap is the belief among voters that Republicans instead of Democrats are best able to manage the economy.
In early July, voters trusted Republicans over Democrats by 12 points as the party best able to manage the economy. Given the president’s plunge in approval over the Afghanistan withdrawal, I would think the trust gap is even wider now.
The bottom line is while things look politically grim for President Biden and the Democrats right now, there’s a lot of time between now and November next year. Things can change. But with 52% of likely voters saying he should resign, and 60% saying, if not, he should be impeached, that’s a tough hill to climb!
As always, feel free to post your comments on garydhalbert.com.
Assuming Rasmussen is accurate/nonpartisan (and that’s a big assumption), perhaps people should see how much of this thing was run by our usually highly respected military establishment, vs. interference from executive branch (President, NSC, Cabinet). There will be books written.
Anyways, if an attempt to use the carrot/stick of self defense weapons for Ukraine to get political dirt on an opponent, followed months later by an attempted autogolpe isn’t enough to impeach a President, what is?
Let’s impeach FDR for Pearl Harbor while we’re at it.
1. Trump made the surrender deal with the Taliban and withdrew needed forces. After that shameful deal, our position in Afghanistan was untenable.
2. George W Bush got us into the morass of Afghanistan in the first place. He also invaded Iraq without a good reason or a plan on how to rule Iraq after invasion.
3. US intelligence knew of the plan to hit the twin towers (code name Bobinka) courtesy of Philippine intelligence during the Clinton administration. Therefore, they still knew once George W Bush was inaugurated.
4. Biden made a bad decision, but he had no good options available.
5. The only recent president who didn’t screw up was President Obama.
Vice President Harris is an unknown on foreign policy. Such people, as president, are dangerous. However, I doubt that she could mishandle foreign affairs as badly as Trump (a low bar). History will confirm to what extent Trump was a Russian agent or asset.
This is a low point in the Biden presidency. However, note that Clinton inherited the Somalia fiasco from George HW Bush AND approved it in advance. He was resoundingly reelected. If this is THE low point of the Biden presidency, he will be reelected. Do YOU miss the incoherence, divisiveness and hate of the Trump administration?
Again, both Charlie and Barry are re-writing history and talking about something they are obviously ignorant about, or just stupid.
Any deal Trump made could have been, and was, thrown out and altered. In fact, Biden threw everything that Trump did out the window, whether it was benefitting the country or not.
We all know about George Bush. It’s not relevant to what Biden did. All this 20-year old stuff is a deflection away from the terrible Biden approach.
Biden made a bad decision. He had lots of options.
Obama was a total screw-up, unless you ignore the real world and play make believe.
Trump’s foreign policy, though hated by the left because it actually put American interests first, was better than most.
both commenters are Democrats who will lie about anything just so their side looks better, but everyone sees right through it.
so you disapprove of Obama taking Bin Laden Out? He made mistakes in Libya and Syria, but he didn’t get us into forever wars. You are being rude to Charlie and me when you merely disagree. You might list what good options Biden had if you want anyone to consider the possibility that you have a point.
Trump put Russian interests first.
If Bush2 hadn’t invaded Afghanistan, Biden wouldn’t have this problem now.
The biggest criticisms of Bush before the Afghanistan fiasco were how little of Trumps policies he discarded. He has been less divisive.
Respectfullu