A new mainstream poll released on Sunday found that the overwhelming majority of Americans want Democrat President Joe Biden to consider all possible candidates when selecting his nominee to the Supreme Court.
The poll comes after Biden said this week during a press conference with retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer that the person that he nominates to the Supreme Court will be “the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.”
“It’s long overdue, in my view,” Biden claimed. “I made that commitment during the campaign for President, and I will keep that commitment.”
“Now, with the chance to do so, just over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Biden to consider ‘all possible nominees,'” ABC News reported. “Just 23% want him to automatically follow through on his history-making commitment that the White House seems keen on seeing through.”
Nearly all Republicans, 95%, said that all nominees should be considered whereas only 54% of Democrats said the same.
One of the most troubling findings for Democrats from the poll was the revelation that only 1% of Americans describe “the state of the nation’s economy” as “excellent.” Overall, 75% said that the economy was either in “not so good” or “poor” shape.
Other noteworthy toplines from the poll included:
- One year after entering office, Biden has lost the approval of almost one in five Americans (19%) on his response to the coronavirus, dropping from 69% approve in January 2021 to 50% approve in January 2022.
- The President has lost similar levels of support on his handling of the economic recovery, down 18 points from 60% approve in March 2021 to 42% approve now.
- Public approval of other facets of Biden’s administration are also more negative than positive including two-thirds (69%) disapproving of his handling of gun violence, 69% disapproving his handling of inflation, 64% disapproving his handling of crime, and 64% disapproving his handling of immigration.
The poll comes after Biden plummeted to a new low in a Harvard Harris poll released last week as the majority of Americans now say that he is too old for office and have questions about his mental fitness.
“Biden’s approval rating fell to 39 percent in the poll,” The Hill reported. “Of that, 18 percent of registered voters said they strongly approve of the job he’s doing, while 21 percent say they somewhat approve. Meanwhile, 53 percent said they somewhat or strongly disapprove of his job performance.”
More Americans strongly disapproved of the job that Biden is doing as President, 40%, than the number of Americans who strongly approve or somewhat approve of Biden’s job performance combined, 39%.
Biden’s approval rating is now down six percentage points from November and his disapproval rating increased by two percentage points from 51% in November.
Other top lines from the poll included:
- When asked, “Do you think President Biden is able to handle difficult international issues like defending Ukraine from the Russians and protecting Taiwan from China or is he not able to handle these kinds of problems?” a majority of Americans, 54%, said that Biden “is not able.”
- When asked, “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his fitness for office?” a majority of Americans, 53%, said, “I have doubts about his fitness.”
- When asked, “Do you think Joe Biden is showing he is too old to be President or do you think he is showing he is fit to be president?” a majority of Americans, 61%, said Biden is “showing he is too old” while only 39% said Biden is “Showing he is fit to be president.”
- When asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Republican Party is handling its job?” 48% said that they approved, while 52% said they disapproved.
- When asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Democratic Party is handling its job?” 40% said that they approved, while 60% said that they disapproved.
- When asked, “How strong do you think the U.S. economy is today?” 37% said strong, while 63% said weak.
The new Harvard Harris poll comes after Biden’s approval rating crashed to 33% earlier this month in a separate poll from Quinnipiac University.