Biden meets Spot the robo dog during visit to North Carolina

Joe Biden again on Thursday bragged about the number of jobs he’s created as president during a stop designed to tout his administration’s accomplishments amid Democratic worries they’ll take a beating in the upcoming midterm election.

Biden said he’s created 7.9 million jobs during his 14 months as president, an economic message he is pushing amid record high inflation and declining approval ratings. 

One of Biden’s stops on Thursday was at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was a robotics lab, where he met Spot, a robotic dog that can maneuver through complex environments to conduct remote missions.

Biden, a dog lover who has a German Shepherd pup named Commander, didn’t interact with the robotic caine but did tell him: ‘Spot, I tell you what, be nice to me on the way out.’

He watched the yellow and black mechanical dog trot back and forth across the room as some of the robotics students described Spot’s functions. 

‘It’s not going to replace people,’ one of the students said, adding that ‘Commander is safe in the White House.’

Biden chuckled in response.

The president was in North Carolina to apply pressure on Congress to approve the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which aims to increase funding for domestic production of semiconductors.

But he also talked about what his administration has accomplished as he seeks to fight back from opinion polls that now put his approval rating at just 33 percent. 

Six months out from the midterm election, Biden is increasing his domestic travel schedule with competitive states on the agenda. In addition to North Carolina on Thursday, Biden was in Iowa on Tuesday. He’s scheduled to travel to North Carolina on Tuesday of next week.

‘Our economy created 431,000 jobs in the month of March alone,’ he said, adding that he’s created ‘7.9 million jobs over the course of my presidency, more jobs in the 14 months I’ve been president than any president ever created in American history.

He added that North Carolina has created 194,000 jobs in the last 14 months.

But questions remains as to whether voters will buy Biden’s jobs argument. The president’s approval rating has dropped as inflation has rose.

It hit an all-time low on Wednesday, according to a Quinnipiac poll which revealed that only 33 percent of respondents believe Biden is doing a good job as president. 

The numbers are buoyed by Democrats who give him a 76 percent approval rating. On the other hand only 26 percent of independents – crucial voters in any election – approve of his performance, while just three per cent of Republicans approve.

The poll is at the lower end of recent surveys. And The Real Clear Politics polling average has Biden’s approval rating standing at 40.6 per cent. 

Inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.5 percent this week, which Biden continues to blame on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine.

‘What people don’t know is that 70% of the increase in inflation was a consequence of Putin’s price hike,’ he said, ‘because of the impact on oil prices.’

He also closed his remarks with the upbeat message he is pushing.

‘There is simply no limit I mean it no limit is what we can achieve,’ he said. ‘There’s not a single thing American can’t do when we do it together.’

But White House officials acknowledge that the public focus on the war in Ukraine make it more difficult for the president to get his economic message out.

‘While the world needs to understand and see how he is leading on the war, the country needs to see how he is continuing to lead on the economy,’ Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

‘Being able to continue to speak to our domestic audience about that is a huge priority. And his schedule tells the story of how much of a priority it is.’