President Joe Biden has seen his approval rating inch upward after an 11-month decline… but that may have all come apart after his primetime speech earlier this month.
Biden was speaking outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, cloaked in red light and flanked by two Marines, when he forcibly went after supporters of former President Donald TRump.
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” Biden said Thursday in his 24-minute speech. “They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
Trafalgar Group conducted a survey of reactions to the speech… and their findings may surprise you.
The pollsters heard from 1,084 “likely general election voters” during the three days following the speech, between Sep. 2 and Sep. 5.
They asked the respondents, “What is your opinion of President Biden’s recent primetime address to the nation in which he
accused his political opponents of representing ‘an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic?'”
The respondents could choose either, “It represents a dangerous escalation in rhetoric and is designed to incite conflict amongst Americans,” or, “It is acceptable campaign messaging that is to be expected in an election year.”
56.8 percent of respondents chose “a dangerous escalation.”
Meanwhile, 35.5 percent chose “acceptable campaign messaging,” and 7.7 percent remained unsure.
With this speech, Biden apparently caused worries among a landslide majority of likely voters, a majority well outside the poll’s 2.9 percent margin of error.
It doesn’t stop there.
The negative reactions from Republicans appear to have outweighed the positive reactions from Democrats.
A whopping 89.9 percent of Republican respondents described the speech as dangerous, and 62.4 percent of independents agreed. Meanwhile, only 70.8 percent of Democrats described the speech as acceptable.
Biden alienated Republicans, and he failed to energize his base.
Granted, this particular poll doesn’t always show its work. For example, the pollsters have yet to specify whether they asked the question via email, text message, or voice recording.
Still, Biden is suffering in other polls, too.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s poll average, Biden has seen his approval rating grow more slowly since the speech.
He also remains widely unpopular, despite the modest bump.
On Tuesday, Biden was sitting at 43 percent approval on that poll aggregate. He remains below his approval ratings from January of this year, and he has earned a disapproval rate of 52.8 percent, almost 10 points higher than his approval rating.
Biden gave a similar speech on Labor Day, although he presumably reached a smaller audience.
Watch the videos here —
Read more: Biden uses Labor Day to double down on MAGA outrage
The Horn editorial team