US President Joe Biden’s public approval rating this week neared the lowest level of his term in office, according to a new Portal/Ipsos poll, as Republicans have criticized classified documents found in his home in recent months.
The three-day national poll that ended Sunday showed 40% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance as president, up from 39% in a Portal/Ipsos poll conducted a month earlier.
Biden started 2023 buoyed by better-than-expected results from the Democrats in the midterm elections.
US inflation also slowed and the Republican Party appeared in confusion after taking days to elect the Speaker of the House.
However, recent polls suggest these factors have not materially changed public opinion about the president preparing for his likely re-election in 2024.
Biden, 80, is expected to start another run for the White House next month after the Feb. 7 State of the Union address.
In recent days, Republicans in Congress have attacked the president after the White House said this month that Biden’s attorneys had found classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of the midterm elections earlier in November.
Biden’s inauguration amid the COVID-19 pandemic was marked by the economic scars of the global health crisis, including runaway inflation.
Last year, his approval rating dropped to as low as 36% in May and June. The Portal/Ipsos survey, conducted in the United States, collected responses from 1,035 adults using a nationally representative sample.
Either way, the survey has an error rate of three percentage points.