President Joe Biden told Jimmy Fallon on Friday that he doesn’t pay attention to approval polls, as his approval ratings continue to sink.
Appearing via video call on “The Tonight Show” Friday night, Biden said that he paid attention to polls when his approval ratings were high, but has not paid attention since his job approval has sunk into the low 40s.
“How much do you pay attention to approval ratings?” Fallon asked Biden.
“Well, not anymore,” Biden replied, prompting a laugh from Fallon and the crowd. “I paid attention when they were in the mid-60s. Now it’s in the mid-40s; I don’t pay attention anymore,” Biden joked.
“You came in, you came in hot, you got to medium, and now you’re at a low, but you’ve just got to keep your head down, right, and doing the right thing?” Fallon continued.
Biden blamed his falling approval ratings on misinformation.
“Well look, here’s the deal, I think that its — we’ve been in [office] less than a year, a lot has happened, and look, people are afraid, people are worried,” Biden said. “And people are getting so much inaccurate information to them, I don’t mean about me, but about their situation. So they’re, you know, they’re being told that, you know, that Armageddon’s on the way. The truth is the economy’s grown more than it has [at] any time in close to 60 years, the unemployment rate is down to 4.2%, and it’s going to go lower, in my view.”
Biden then admitted that skyrocketing inflation is affecting many Americans’ daily lives. “We do have inflation on things that in fact matter to people’s lives. When you show up at a gas station and it’s $3.50 at your pump, although now that I took 50 million barrels out of the [Strategic Petroleum Reserve], the gasoline is down below $3.00 in many places, it’s gonna come down, it’s gonna move. In the meantime, people are worried. … There’s a lot of anxiety.”
“My job is to be straightforward, shoot from the shoulder, let people know exactly what the truth is, and lay out how I’m going to try to make life better for them,” Biden continued.
The president did order the release of 5o million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but the move did not appear to significantly reduce prices, as that amount only accounts for about 2.5 days’ worth of oil consumption, as The Daily Wire reported.
Biden’s comments come amid reports that the administration is allegedly working behind the scenes with news outlets to get more favorable coverage amid the supply chain and inflation crises. The Daily Wire reported that several White House officials, including members of the National Economic Council, have been discussing issues of job creation, economic growth, and supply chains, arguing that the economy is faring much better than it was last year.
A recent poll found that Biden’s approval rating, at just 37%, is lower than every governor in the United States, and is below 30% in 17 states, and down to just 18% in the state of West Virginia. Biden’s approval rating currently sits at 42.3%, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, with just under 52% disapproval.
Another poll found that just 22% of Americans want Biden to run in 2024, and just 12% want Vice President Kamala Harris to run.