America's Talking - Episode 56: Biden approval rating hits new low, poll shows

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Join The Center Square's Executive Editor Dan McCaleb & D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss: Biden appears to say he has cancer; White House clarifies (Combined with) President Joe Biden has COVID with 'very mild' symptoms, White House says. Biden approval rating hits new low, poll shows. Nearly half of small businesses are in hiring freeze, citing inflation and costs. Nikki Haley hints strongly at 2024 presidential run. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the America in Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. America in Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can find all of the Center Square's great podcasts at AmericasTalking.com. That's America's Talking.com. Joining me today, as per usual, is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. We're recording this Friday, July 22nd. Casey, it's been an interesting,

week for President Biden. First, he sent the American media on Full alert when he flubbed a speech saying he has cancer. And then the next day, he actually tested positive for COVID. What's going on here? Yeah, Full is almost an understatement. You know, when the president of the United States makes a casual announcement that he has cancer and sends all of the media and a flurry into a tizzy, I will say if you were on the center square.com, you would have been one of the first to see that story as we easily outpaced our news media competition. Is that you giving you another pad on the back? You know, my arms are getting tired from the constant back padding. I will hand it to you.

You were, if not the first, certainly among the first. And we had it up within a few minutes of the president saying that he had cancer. And as you said, casually is saying it. Yeah. Speech about other things. Well, and if you haven't seen the clip, I mean, you know, I was covering the speech that Biden was giving on the climate. And he's talking and he's talking about the impact of oil emissions and things on people's health.

And he's like, and that's why I, like so many others have cancer. And he just kind of moved on. You know, wait a minute. You know, did the president. And I think, you know, the less talked about side of this is the sad reality that when the president of the United States said he had cancer. most people said, oh, it's probably just his mental failings. And it's kind of a sad situation.

But, you know, Biden, these gaffes, the president misspeaking or slurring his words or not saying what he means have become increasingly common to the point where with something like this happens, people assume that there's a really good chance. It's not really what he meant. So as you referenced, the White House did come out later and clarified. And they said, actually, the president doesn't have cancer. He just was referring to previous, you know, battles with cancer. has that are no longer an issue. I mean, this may be a little over skeptical. I do think it's

worth at least saying that there is a small chance that, you know, the president accidentally told the truth and the White House is covering for it. I don't think that's what happened here, but we can't just assume that, you know, the White House press team is always giving us the most accurate information on something so sensitive as this. But that's, you know, as for now, it seems like the president doesn't have cancer. But then in a weird twist, the very next day he didn't. The White House did announce that he has COVID. They're going to be giving daily updates on the status of the president. So for now they say he has, quote, very mild symptoms. It seems probably to be early in the case. Symptoms can get worse. Of course,

the president is very old. He's 79 years old, right? It puts it more at risk. We knew this, yeah, we knew pretty much from the first weeks of the pandemic that COVID has little effect on younger, healthy folks, but it can impact older folks and those with other comorbidities. We don't think the president has cancer, but cancer would be a comorbidity. So he would be certainly more in danger of serious effects from COVID if he did. But we're going on the premise. We're leaving the White House. He does not have cancer, but he still is 79 years old.

He is 79. He's also began taking, I don't know, I can't pronounce this quite a, we're Paxlovid. Paxilvid, okay, thank you. You don't have to spell it. You don't have to spell it. You don't have to spell it. Right. You only have to spell it.

That's journalists. We're better at writing than talking sometimes. But, you know, like I said, there's going to be the daily updates. The president has been vaccinated and he's gotten two booster shots. Now, some people, maybe it's going to. You got both doses of the original vaccine. And he's had two booster. Yeah.

So four jabs total. And a lot of people were kind of maybe bad timing, maybe a little crass. But we're quick to point out that, you know, Biden verbatim, you know, videos quickly circulated on Twitter showing Biden verbatim saying that if you get vaccinated, you will not get COVID, right? And so then- Well, during the campaign, during his and many others, particularly Democrats, criticism of former President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic. Right.

And the whole, the ship has kind of sailed on this idea that the vaccine will keep you from getting COVID. Now it's the vaccine will lessen the negative health consequences of COVID. But there, you know, there was definitely a time where Americans were promised that if they got the vaccine, they would be protected from COVID. That promise clearly didn't come true. But it's really been brought back to the forefront by the fact that the president of the United States, one of the very leaders who promised that immunity. is now sick despite being vaccinated and twice boosted.

And in my home state of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, also a Democrat contracted COVID-19 this week. We'll be talking about Illinois Governor Pritzker here a little more and a little bit. But it's not obviously just not our leaders. I mean, the case counts are surging across the nation. but, you know, deaths are not, deaths are flat. Hospitalsizations are flat. So it does appear this new variant that's going around isn't as severe as some previous ones.

Right. And so, you know, I mean, the cases are growing. You said, I think it's interesting at some point the Americans' willingness to have the shutdowns to different things or politicians' willingness to implement them. It kind of detached from how bad COVID actually is nationwide. I think, you know, my sense is that Americans just don't want to go back to logdowns. They don't want to go back to mask mandates. It's kind of hard to keep track with how many cases. Oh, is COVID worse now?

Like, it was fine for a while. Now it's back. I think people are just kind of ready to live with the risk, wear a mask. Some people I still see wearing masks, you know, when I'm walking around outside, there'd be people by themselves walking around wearing a mask. And, you know, if that's what they want to do, that's what they can do. So they're definitely people still with that level of caution, but at least here, even in the D.C. area, which is pretty, you know,

and during the pandemic was very strongly mandate, mask, all that. They're really loosened. You don't see nearly the number of masks. And whether COVID's getting much worse or not, it seems like people don't really care anymore. They're going to live their life. And they got vaccinated. They did what they could, but they're kind of moved on. And I would agree with that sentiment. One thing, you know, we're getting towards the end of July here. Many schools across the country start opening in mid-August, late August, certainly by Labor Day in September. And across the country last year when schools started reopening, it was a bit chaotic here. Here in Illinois, for example, there was no mask mandate in effect

throughout the summer. And then a week before school starts, Governor Pritzker, the Illinois's governor, and stated the mass man bit date, which caused outrage amongst parents and some school officials and chaos when kids returned to school. So we're just hoping here and everywhere else that we don't have a repeat of last year with case counts surging now. But we'll have to see. That's right. All right. Why don't we move on, Casey, but sticking on the subject of President Biden, new poll shows his approval ratings has hit another new low. Tell us about this.

Yeah, on the theme of the very bad, no good, terrible week for Biden, who apparently just narrowly dodged cancer and now has COVID. Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed that 60% of surveyed Americans, disapprove of the job Biden is doing his president while only 31% approve. That's the lowest that Quinnipiac has found since Biden took office. 60% disapproval is definitely kind of a watermark that is really not good for the president. You don't see too often. I mean, you do see 50-something percent disapprovals. Essentially twice as many people disapprove of the job President Biden is doing as approve it. Right. I mean, if you pick three people off the street, two are going to say, I hate what he's doing and one are going to say he's doing a good job.

So that is pretty wild. It's definitely the lowest, the worst that he's seen. And it's not just the worst that he's seen. It's worse than either of the two former presidents ever received during their presidencies. President Trump didn't see approval ratings this bad. And former President Obama didn't either. Right. And that's really worth noting, especially because Trump never really had great approval ratings.

So to go lower than what Trump had is pretty low. I mean, you know, Trump never got, you know, Obama had much better overall approval ratings straight as president. He definitely had low points. But Trump as a whole, really experienced low approval ratings for much of his presidency. So to dip below Trump is pretty noteworthy and a real sign. I think that, you know, for all Trump's bombastic ways, the economy was pretty good compared to what is now. And we see another polling that wasn't in this, but we see.

see another polling. I guess it was hit on some of this poll, but American site inflation and the economy is top issues. People care about social issues. People care about the things like abortion that are happening. But that is all dwarfed by how much they care about the economy. And that has been consistent in American politics for a long time, but it's really being highlighted now. You can have something as dramatic as Roe v. Wade being overturned. And it still is just a blip on the radar to how much Americans are concerned about inflation when you poll them. So, you know, and the politicians like to pick on some of these other side issues, but when you ask the average American, they're very worried about the economy and they're not happy with what Biden is doing

about it. To cite another former president, since we're bringing up former president's names here, it's the economy, stupid, right? That's right. Famously, Bill Clinton said that when he was campaigning for the presidency. But yeah, when inflation is at 41-year highs. when gas prices surpass reach record highs in June above $5 a gallon on average across the country in some places above $7 a gallon. Now they have started trickling down a little bit, and let's hope we can see that we see that trend continue throughout the summer. But Americans are significantly impacted by what's going on in the economy right now. They're having to cut back on things. food prices are outrageous, you know, just driving to work costs significantly more. So, of course,

Americans are going to hold that against President Biden. That's right. And it's not just the economy. He has a 28% approval on the economy, which is extremely low. But he also has 36% approval on foreign policy, which is very low as well. He does better on things like COVID, where he has a 50% approval rating. But even then, I mean, he's only got basically his party and a few independence to approve of one of his best issues. So I think that foreign policy thing, you know, when comparing it to his predecessor, Trump, those are actually two issues where Trump was seen is doing pretty well, foreign policy and the economy. You know, he had some big foreign policy wins, some big treaties, no major wars. And Biden's taken over the economy. He's really taken a

downturn. And we're seeing, you know, Ukraine and different things like really get out of control. And I'll just say this is really interesting stat in the poll. thirds of Americans say the country is worse off today than it was a year ago, while only 26% say the country is better off. So, even only 71% of Democrats approve of Biden. So only 71% of his own party. And I think we're going to hit on that here in a moment, how his own party is kind of turning against him a bit. But only 71% approval of your own party is, is definitely a bad sign. So all these things are swirling together. And, you know, it, it, it, it, it, feeds into some of the unrest. We're seeing some potential presidential contenders as the

2024 rumors are already swirling. Why don't we just go ahead and transition to that then, Casey? We're not even at the midterm elections, which are November, control of the U.S. House, control of the U.S. Senate, control of Congress is at stake in November. But we're already starting to talk about 2024. When President Biden's term ends, he says he's going to run for re-election. There's been all kinds of speculation on both the Republican side and the Democratic side. Why don't we start with the Republican side? Because that's where the news was this week. We had a former Republican governor of South Carolina saying she might be a candidate. That is right. It's not just the Democrats that are starting to think about.

2024. It's also the Republicans and former Republican governor, South Carolina, who was also the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. for President Trump, Nikki Haley. She is hinting strongly at a presidential run. The way she did it was kind of tongue and cheek, but she was at this event. Christians United for Israel earlier this week, and it's a big event. A lot of people there. Definitely a big conservative event, the kind of place you want to be if you're getting ready for a Republican primary race, which it seems Haley is preparing to do. She said, basically, I'll read this quote, if this president referring to Biden,

signs any sort of Iran nuclear deal, I'll make you a promise. The next president will shred it on her first day in office. So the audience really picked up on that herd. It kind of went wild, right? It's very sneaky. And she said, just saying, sometimes it takes a woman. So there you go, Dan.

Sometimes it takes a woman. I don't know. go ahead. I was going to say, of course, we don't know yet what former President Donald Trump is going to do. I think a lot of people expect him to run again. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a Republican governor. His name is also being floated out there as a potential candidate.

Then you've got former Vice President, Donald Trump's Vice President, Mike Pence, as a potential candidate. So it's getting interesting there. Yeah, it is interesting because the primaries can be really complicated because sometimes, you know, two candidates will be pulling from the same base. And then one candidate who's different, who maybe is not as popular, is the other two will rise in prominence. So maybe you could imagine the situation where Trump and DeSantis are fighting over a lot of the same voters. And Nikki Haley, who I would venture to guess right now is not as popular as either Trump or DeSantis among Republicans. But if she's able to kind of carve out a niche and pull in different people and Trump and DeSantis are fighting over the same voter, she could really rise to a really competitive spot.

And even if she doesn't win, though she definitely could, that's, that Republican primary is what a lot of wheeling and dealing is done, where people can make promises to be vice president or to be cabinet members. You may remember in the last Democratic primary, it looked like Bernie Sanders was going to run away with it. And from all the reporting and what it looks like, I mean, I don't have a lot of inside intel inside the DNC, but the Democratic Party got together and said, we can't let Bernie win. And so they got Biden and they rallied all the other candidates to endorse Biden. And then like Pete Buttigieg, which was a really crucial endorsement for Biden who did not have the most support in the Democratic priority. You know, Buttigieg endorses Biden. And now look who's our transportation secretary. one only people to judge. So, you know, those are things kind of look out for that could be coming into play in this Republican primary. It's wheeling and dealing. There's people getting more or less support because of a lot of factors. So it's all be really interesting to watch even before the-

It's interesting to me, Casey, that you completely discounted former vice president, Mike Pence. Oh, I didn't know I discount him at all. He's a great. That's another one. But he, you know, I don't think he's hinted as strongly. I think he is going to run, but he hasn't given as bold a hints as like Trump is, like, Trump is, all but said he's going to run. He said Trump said he's already made his decision, but he hasn't decided when he's going to announce it. So, and the way he talks about it, it's like he's definitely running. I think DeSantis is doing everything to position himself. But Pence is strong. He's got a lot of evangelicals. He's seen as like a great foil to Trump. I think a lot of Trump voters are still really upset with him for how he handled January 6th. But at the same time, you know, maybe some more moderate people respected for it. I don't know. Well, let's let's talk briefly about the Democratic side. And

you know, under normal circumstances, a sitting president who's in his first term is the presumptive nominee for re-election after that. But behind the scenes, we're hearing that there's a lot of pressure from Democrats that President Biden not seek re-election, in part because of his approval ratings, in part because of what appears to be deteriorating physical and mental health, as we said of top. He's 79 years old. He'll be in his 80s by the end of this term. So if he were to be run again and be reelected, he'd be past his mid-80s by the time he finishes that term. So there's a lot of speculation about other candidates on the Democratic side. Yeah, there is. And I mean, it's a little bit of analysis here, but referencing back to how Biden won the nomination,

you know, it wasn't with broad support and a big, you know, wins in the Senate and the House to he wasn't sent with broad support and a mandate to change the whole government from top to bottom. I think that his support was cobbled together by Democrats who were really afraid of Bernie Sanders, and then he was able to eke out a presidential win because a lot of people were kind of worried about Trump and unsure about him because of a lot of his tendencies. And so a lot of people interpreted Biden's win as more reaction to Trump than some great love or belief in this, you know, Biden and his ideal. So, you know, and that is also reflected by the fact that the Senate was, is split in the last election. In the House, there's only a narrow majority. So I think, uh, the message you take from

that is that there's not broad support for Republicans or Democrats. We just kind of wanted some stability as the American people. Um, and then, you know, in four years, we'll kind of revisit this issue. So there was never any, the same is true for Kamala Harris, actually. She never, she only had like six percent support in the Democratic primary. And so it, uh, she never really was able to get a grassroots swell behind her as well. And I think a lot of people inside the DNC know that. And so they're thinking, okay, Biden has got COVID. He's 79. Even if we did let him run again, and he's going to be well into his 80s. He's already showing cognitive decline. I think, you know, it's hard to say this, but people are wondering what happens if the president passes away. What's our

contingency plan? Are we ready for that? So there's a lot moving on. I mean, I know you, I'd love to hear you're like an expert much more than me on Pritzker. Dan, but I will point out that Governor Gavin Newsom of California ran an attack at against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which was very interesting, piqued a lot of interests. You know, basically told people to move from Florida to California, which is very much against the trend right now. People are fleeing California. But so a lot of people said, oh, this is an early Newsom kind of feeling out what kind of

support he has. But I know Pritzker has done some pretty interesting things as well lately. Yeah, so over the July 4th weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom, there's much speculation that if Biden does not run again, that he will seek the Democratic nomination president over the July 4th weekend. Using campaign dollars, his campaign launched an ad campaign in Florida attacking Governor DeSantis, attacking Florida Republican policies, saying Floridians are not free. California is free and inviting Floridians to move to the free state of California. Free of disposable income. Free of disposable income, of course. California schools were closed much longer than Florida schools during the pandemic.

California's economy was shut down for much longer than Florida's economy. So the ad was mocked widely particularly. in Florida. But then last week, when President Biden was in the Mideast overseas, Newsom was spotted poking around the White House and going into the White House. Wouldn't comment on why or what he was doing there when the president wasn't there. But yes, there's widespread speculation that Gavin Newsom wants to run for president. You mentioned Illinois Governor Pritzker. He's given some high-profile speeches in recent weeks in New Hampshire, which is traditionally the first primary state after the Iowa caucuses.

He also gave a high profile speech to the state Democrats in Florida last weekend. He's talking, he appears to be looking to raise his national profile. He says he's up for both he and Newsom and DeSantis, for that matter, are up for reelection of their governorships in their various states this year. Pritchker says he's focused on being governor of Illinois for another four years, but his actions speak louder than his words. So, yeah, there's speculation. And of course, you mentioned the Vice President Kamala Harris is a potential candidate, again, if President Biden doesn't run. So here we are two and a half years away, and people are talking about who's going to run for president.

Interesting times. It definitely is. And just I'll make a note just about every candidate who's, ever run for president has started that run by saying they're definitely not going to run. So we don't pay much attention when they say they're not going to run. Casey, we're running out of time. Let's briefly talk about one more story, more bad news for the economy. Nearly half of small businesses say they are in a hiring freeze right now.

Tell us about this. Yeah, this is actually really troubling survey that came out from the small business network alignable. They have a lot of small businesses they work with and they ask them a lot of questions and give us helpful insight, not just how these big picture numbers like GDP or inflation rates and the whole nation are going, but how are actual small businesses thinking, feeling, responding to the economic pressure they're under? And the latest poll showed that 45% of small businesses are freezing hiring, saying they can't afford staff. They said that it's higher labor costs and skyrocketing inflation plus, you know, fears of a recession and higher interest rates.

But this is really interesting because, you know, we can talk about inflation. We can talk about how it's more expensive at the grocery store. But there's this other layer where small businesses, they're very worried. I've written a lot about, you know, the high numbers of small businesses who are afraid they're going to go out of business this year. And they all side inflation as a number one cause. And it seems kind of obvious, but we have to point out that small businesses, businesses hire people, that they have people work for them, right? And so if we have, you know,

people not being able to get jobs or even worse, you know, a third of small businesses or more going out of business because of inflation, which is what some of the survey data suggests they're afraid of. That is, you know, millions of people who could lose work. And of course, when they don't have money, they don't spend money, which makes it harder for other businesses. And it's just like this downward spiral. So the report also found that 4% of small businesses are planning to lay off workers. And many have just learned to live without the extra staff. I mean, it varies by different industries. Like 63% of real estate are reporting the same hiring freeze. So this is throughout the economy, it's going to be harder to get jobs. And that's bad news for Americans.

Yeah, that is bad news. That's scary stuff. Casey, of course. You will continue to cover the state of the economy at the center square.com. That's all the time we have this week, though. Thank you for your insight. And a reminder to our listeners, you can find all of the Center Squares podcast in America's Talking.com. Take a look. Please subscribe. There is no cost. This has been the America and Focus podcast for Casey Harper. I'm Dan McKeel. We'll talk to you next week.