(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden is underwater on nearly every descriptor offered to judge a president, according to a new poll.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights, found that 49% of voters say Biden is not a strong leader compared to 36% who say the opposite. The survey also found that 49% say Biden does not have the judgment to serve effectively, while 40% say he does.
The survey also found that a solid majority of 66% of those surveyed say the country is headed in the wrong direction and slightly over half, 54%, disapprove of the job Biden is doing.
“With older voters, younger voters, he’s underwater,” Mike Noble, founder of Noble Predictive Insights, the group that conducted the poll, told The Center Square. “Same thing with males and females. He performs much worse with males. He is -22 with males and only -8 with females. That’s a huge gender difference.”
Noble pointed out that four in 10 Democrats think the country is going in the wrong direction, along with seven in 10 independents.
Biden’s approval rating has suffered in part because of the rapid rise in inflation during his presidency and the chaotic and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
“It’s crazy, when you look at the numbers for Biden, first six or seven months, he was fantastic,” Noble said. “And right when the Afghanistan withdrawal happened, he dropped like a rock, and he never recovered.”
Biden has taken ongoing fire for allegations that he and his family benefited from overseas business dealings from his time as vice president during the Obama administration. The House Oversight Committee leadership has released witness testimony, FBI informant documents and bank records backing up allegations that the Biden family and associates received about $20 million from entities in China, Ukraine, Romania, Russia and Kazakhstan via about 20 shell companies.
At the same time, IRS whistleblowers testified that Biden’s Department of Justice interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden, who allegedly spearheaded the overseas deals and is now facing tax and gun-related charges.
Noble said those allegations have eroded Americans’ trust in Biden and have helped offset the legal troubles facing former President Donald Trump, putting the two at a near tie in a potential general election faceoff.
A plurality of those surveyed, 47%, say Biden is not trustworthy while 40% say he is, and 40% say Biden is corrupt, compared to 43% who say he is not.
“Biden definitely has a bit of a perception issue,” Noble said. “I think the trustworthy one, that’s the surprising one. Historically, I think Joe BIden would have scored really high on that question, but I think due to the Hunter Biden issue … he is viewed more untrustworthy than trustworthy among the overall electorate which I think is a bit of an issue for him.”
As The Center Square previously reported, the same poll found that in a potential general election matchup, Republican frontrunner and former President Donald Trump has 41% support compared to Biden’s 44% support, while 15% remain unsure.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis does slightly better, with 41% support to Biden’s 43% while 16% are unsure.
The poll’s margin of error is 2.4%, making either matchup a relative toss-up more than a year away from the general election.
The poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from July 31 to Aug. 3. Unlike traditional national polls, with their limited respondent count of about 1,000, Noble Predictive surveyed 1,000 Republican registered voters, 1,000 Democratic voters, and 500 Independents, culminating in a comprehensive sample size of 2,500. The margin of error for the aggregate sample was ±2.4%, with each political group independently weighted. For more detailed insights and information about the methodology, please visit www.noblepredictiveinsights.com.
