Democratic governors are worried that time is running out for President Joe Biden and his team to reverse their diminishing approval ratings ahead of the November midterm election, according to Politico.
The news outlet referred to the governors’ “general and growing dissatisfaction with the White House’s response” to their previous calls for “clear demonstration of new actions” from the Biden administration in the run-up to the midterms.
“Underlying it all is a concern that Biden and his team are not just out of fresh ideas, but increasingly out of time to turn around their flagging poll numbers” before the November events, Politico reported.
The media outlet cited unnamed Democratic sources “inside and outside of the White House” as admitting that “there is no silver bullet to slay a host of political problems,” including those related to record inflation, high gas prices and the recent Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights.
“But whereas earlier in the year, there was hope that some of those problems would abate, there is diminishing confidence in that now,” Politico underlined.
This comes shortly after CNN reported that dozens of leading Democratic politicians believe the Biden administration lacks effective management to quickly respond to new demands and challenges it faces every day.
The broadcaster also argued that Democrats are concerned that Biden’s indecisiveness may hurt their chances during the upcoming midterms and also fuels a sense that the president will not be able to run for reelection in 2024, reinforcing narratives that he is an old man not fit for the moment.
The claims were echoed by the New York Times reporting last month that senior Democratic officials, lawmakers, and ordinary voters had voiced alarm about Biden’s fitness for a second term. They reportedly fear that the stalling of much of Biden’s agenda, his age, and perceived unfitness to take on Donald Trump in the 2024 election could become an “anchor” that may sink the Democratic Party.
A new Monmouth University Polling Institute survey has, meanwhile, revealed that “a majority of 57% say that the actions of the federal government over the past six months have hurt their family when it comes to their most important concern” and that “just 8% say Washington has helped them.”
The figure marks a sharp increase in the number of those blaming the US government and the Biden administration for their economic woes.
The poll showed that just 23% expect that future government actions over the next few years will help alleviate their family’s top concern, while 45% say Washington will hurt them. A third of the respondents said inflation was their biggest concern and 15% said it was gas prices, according to the survey.
The Democrats’ reported concerns come as the latest poll showed that Republicans are still favored in the forthcoming midterms with an approximate 49% to 42% advantage against Democrats.
The fears also unfold amid growing inflation in the US, which hit a 40-year high of 8.6 % last month and the fact that the average price of gasoline topped $5 per gallon in America in June, issues that are a number one concern among American voters.
Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that the current economic hardships the US is going through should be blamed on Russia and its special operation in Ukraine.
Despite the US president's continuing attempts to shift the responsibility, in particular for the record-breaking inflation rates, even his allies, according to US media reports, appear to not be buying Biden's reasoning. Lately, Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell argued that inflation in the country had been observed long before the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
“Inflation was high before — certainly before the war in Ukraine broke out,” Powell said. He added that inflation is being influenced by a number of factors, and while the aftermath of Russia's military operation in Ukraine is among them, "the problem hasn’t sprung out of nowhere."
Speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Washington’s accusations against Moscow over US inflation are “for those who can neither read nor write.”
“People who can read understand that Russia and our actions to liberate [eastern Ukraine’s] Donbass [region] have nothing to do with it,” Putin said. He added that inflation in the US is “the result of the systemic errors of the US administration […] and that for them, Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine is “a lifeline that allows them to blame everything on us.” Moscow has been conducting the special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine since February 24, following request from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev’s provocations.
Adding to the US economic tumult are problems pertaining to the country’s migration crisis, deadly shooting sprees and foreign policy-related hefty expenses, including Washington’s military aid to Ukraine.