By Chris Kahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The number of Americans who approve of President Joe Biden has grown steadily since he took office, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Friday, driven by concrete steps his government has taken to tackle the economic and public health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The March 17-18 national poll found that 59% of adults in the United States approved of Biden’s overall job performance, while 35% disapproved and 6% said they were unsure.
The number of adults who approve of Biden has increased by about 4 percentage points since a survey conducted in late January, and the increase is largely due to an increase in Biden’s popularity among independents.
About six out of ten independents said they approved Biden in the last poll, compared with about five out of ten who felt the same way in January.
The survey found that Americans appear to be the most satisfied with how Biden is handling the country’s response to the coronavirus, and more than half of the country approves of its influence on the United States’ economy.
Sixty-five percent of Americans said they approved of Biden’s pandemic treatment, and 52% of adults said they liked his administration of the economy and employment.
The strong approval numbers come as more coronavirus vaccines are administered in the United States, with the country on track to meet the president’s goal of administering 100 million doses well ahead of the end of April goal. The United States was so successful in securing a stockpile of vaccines that Biden began making plans to provide other countries with doses of a vaccine that has not yet received authorization from the United States.
Meanwhile, the public also began receiving cash payments as part of a $ 1.9 billion stimulus plan that Biden and Congressional Democrats approved earlier this month.
The survey showed that the public was more critical, however, of Biden’s background so far in relation to immigration, as the government faces an influx of migrants on the southern border with Mexico.
Republican leaders have sharply criticized the president’s interest in reversing some of his predecessor’s hard-line immigration policies, and blame him in large part for the waves of new migrants crowding the border in hopes of entering the country.
About 41% said they approved the way Biden deals with the immigration system, while 45% disapproved. Republicans were especially critical with 79% saying they disapproved of Biden’s immigration record, while 73% of Democrats said they approved his treatment of border issues.
The Reuters / Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, across the United States. It gathered responses from 1,005 adults, including 456 Democrats and 374 Republicans. The survey has a credibility range, a measure of accuracy, of four percentage points.
(Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Bill Berkrot)