Nearly three-quarters of Americans surveyed believe the U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan has gone poorly. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s overall approval rating is sinking, according to a poll released Sunday by CBS News and YouGov.
What You Need To Know
- Nearly three-quarters of Americans surveyed believe the U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan has gone poorly
- Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s overall approval rating has taken a hit, with 50% approving of his job performance and 50% disapproving
- Sixty-three percent said they support removing troops from the 20-year war in Afghanistan, but 53% said they don’t approve of Biden’s handling of the withdrawal
- The president is still receiving positive marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but even that has fallen over the past month
Forty-four percent of participants said they believe the situation in Afghanistan has gone very badly, while 30% said it has gone somewhat badly. Just 26% believe it has gone somewhat or very well.
Sixty-three percent said they support removing troops from the 20-year war in Afghanistan, but 53% said they don’t approve of Biden’s handling of the withdrawal. Two-thirds also said they don’t think Biden has a clear plan for evacuating American civilians from Afghanistan.
Eighty-one percent of those polled said the U.S. should evacuate Afghan translators who helped American troops during the war, but 59% said they believe the U.S. is not doing enough to help Afghans leave the country.
There was a stark partisan divide, with 79% of Democrats approving of Biden’s handling of Afghanistan, but just 42% of Republicans.
Yet most Americans don’t believe the president deserves the brunt of the blame for the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Sixty percent of those surveyed said the Afghan government deserves a lot of the responsibility, and 55% pointed the finger at the Afghan army. Only 36% said they believed Biden should receive much of the blame, while 25% said Trump deserved a lot of the responsibility.
Biden’s overall approval also has taken a hit, with 50% approving of his job performance and 50% disapproving. Biden had a 58% job approval rating in the same poll just last month and enjoyed a 62% rating in March.
Eighty-six percent of Democrats give Biden’s job performance a thumb’s-up, but just 11% of Republicans approve. Biden also has seen his support from independents slip into negative territory since last month, down from 55% to 46%.
The president is still receiving positive marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but even that has fallen over the past month as the delta variant and lagging vaccination rates have fueled a surge of new infections. Fifty-five percent of Americans say they think Biden has done a very good or somewhat good job of handling the pandemic, down from 66% in July.
