The one thing that forces negative coverage of President Biden is negative polling. On Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC's politics guru Steve Kornacki explained to host Kristen Welker the latest NBC News findings, which show an erosion of Biden's standing, even among young Democrats. The war in Gaza is taking a toll, and Donald Trump now leads Biden, 46 to 44 percent.
Welker said "Steve, some real stunning highlights here in this poll." Kornacki said Biden's approval rating is bottoming out: "We measure it now at 40% with 57% disapproving. The significance? That is the lowest President Biden has ever measured in our poll, in terms of job approval."
The reason is erosion among Democrats: "Seven percent of Republicans approve of Joe Biden's job performance. But three times as many Democrats, 21 percent, that's more than one in five, say they disapprove. You need much more unified support in your own party if you're going to have a successful reelection campaign. And we mentioned the drop in that approval rating and the connection to the Middle East and here it is. On foreign policy 33% approve of Joe Biden's job performance."
Another Sunday, another poll with “stunning” low numbers for Joe Biden. Approval now at 40%, 57% disapproval in new NBC News poll. @SteveKornacki: “That is the lowest President Biden has ever measured in our poll.” #MTP pic.twitter.com/u502KUnmvc
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) November 19, 2023
Kornacki pointed out young voters really abandon Biden over Israel: "Among the oldest group of voters, 65-plus, there's a majority who approve of how Biden's handling this. That's plus 12. Look at the youngest group of voters. 20% approve, 70% disapprove. He is 50 points underwater with the youngest group of voters. That is a 62 point net swing between youngest and oldest on this topic of Israel-Hamas."
This translates into Trump leading by two points. Welker said "this is significant because this is the first time in the history of our poll that former President Trump beats President Biden, still within the margin of error but still significant." Kornacki agreed: "Yeah, in 2019, 2020 when Trump was president he trailed all of them. This year he's trailed all of them in our poll. First time in more than a dozen polls we've seen a result like this."
“Wow....This is the first time, in the history of our poll, that former President Trump beats President Biden” 46% to 44% -- @kwelkernbc. But Trump toxic too in NBC News poll: “Generic Republican” would beat Biden 48% to 37%, Trump loses by 6 to any other Dem. #MTP pic.twitter.com/3CjFFLZld9
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) November 19, 2023
In the pundit roundtable at the end of the show, New York Times reporter Helene Cooper worried about Biden: "he’s in danger of not losing his own party over this, but he's really seen his support go down, as your polls showed, among young Democrats who are very angry of his full embrace, I would say, of – of a right-wing Israeli government – the right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu."
Cooper felt a ceasefire would help Biden, like somehow the ceasefire could be extended quite a bit: "if it brings with it a five-day humanitarian pause, people are hoping, people within the U.S. government are hoping — you don't know, maybe you could extend that pause – are hoping that would – this would at least for five days be a cessation of the bombing campaigns that you're seeing and this spiraling of the civilian death toll, which is what is hurting President Biden, I think, in the polls."
