- Polls after the State of the Union show that President Joe Biden received no boost in the hypothetical election matchup with Donald Trump
- Biden’s age, 81, could be seen as he coughed through parts of his speech
- Other polls show the president’s approval rating at a new low of 37 percent after his address to a joint session of Congress
President Joe Biden didn’t get the typical election rating after his State of the Union address last week — and his approval is now at a new low of 37.4 percent.
The new surveys come as Biden and former President Donald Trump both reached the number of delegates needed for their respective parties for the 2024 nomination in Tuesday’s primaries.
This means that a rematch between the two geriatrics will take place in November, despite the majority of Americans saying they do not want that.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll The survey, conducted just days after Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, shows that the current president’s chances against Trump actually diminished after his fiery comments.
Before the speech, Trump was up 45 to 44 percent over Biden in the late January poll. While the latest recording from March 8 to 11 is still within the polls’ margin of error and amounts to a statistical tie, Trump is now at 46 percent to Biden’s 44 percent in a hypothetical election battle.
Post-State of the Union polls show President Joe Biden got no boost in hypothetical election matchup with Donald Trump after his ‘fiery’ speech
Biden, 81, was impassioned during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, taking several jabs at his “predecessor” and Republicans in the House. But his age was still showing as he coughed, mumbled and stumbled over some parts of his speech
The same poll shows Biden’s approval rating dropping from 40 percent to 39 percent before and after the speech. His disapproval went from 56 percent to 55 percent.
But a FiveThirtyEight average shows that the number of Americans who approve of Biden’s job as president has fallen to a new low of 37.4 percent.
A post-State of the Union HarrisX poll estimates Biden’s approval at a flat 37 percent and disapproval at 58 percent. But among those in that survey who did watch the State of the Union, 13 percent more approved of Biden’s job as president, compared to those who did not tune in.
In previous years, State of the Union addresses were a way for presidents to address everyone — and often the comments were accompanied by a backlash.
For example, Trump’s approval rose a few percent after his 2019 speech in February of that year.
Before his State of the Union address, his approval rating was about 37 percent, according to Gallup polls. But after the comments, the same poll showed the then-president rising to 44 percent.
Another poll, taken after Biden’s comments to a joint session of Congress, shows the president’s approval rating at a new low of 37 percent
Overall, Biden’s final speech of his first term wasn’t exactly the reset the White House was hoping for amid low approval and mounting criticism of the president’s age and fitness for office.
Fifty-one percent of those who watched the State of the Union say Biden looked 81, according to the YouGov poll. Another 24 percent say he seemed “older” than they expected. Only 17 percent say he didn’t seem that old.
Most polls from the past year show that Americans do not want Biden and Trump (77) as two options in the 2024 presidential election.
But after Tuesday’s primaries in the states of Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, that is exactly the general election ballot Americans will receive in November.