President Joe Biden’s latest approval numbers came in on Sunday, and the best numbers of any poll last month came from none other than Fox News.
The network, which regularly takes issue with Biden and the way his administration has handled things, released a new survey on Sunday, giving him a 47% approval rating. Compared to most other surveys released over the last month, Fox’s numbers are several points higher, and mark one of Biden’s highest ratings since November.
FiveThirtyEight, which aggregates these numbers and tracks the reliability of the pollsters “based on the historical accuracy and methodology of each polling organization’s polls,” gives Fox News an A rating.
That said, Fox News also pointed out the high (and growing higher) disapproval ratings for the president in other areas.
According to their survey, 52% of people disapprove of his handling of the pandemic (up from 38% in April 2021), 54% disapprove of his handling of foreign policy (up from 41% in April 2021), 58% disapprove of his handling of the economy (up from 42% in April 2021) and 59% disapprove of his handling of border security (up from 51% in April 2021).
The poll also shows a slight drop in support for a prospective Republican candidate and an increased support for a Democratic one come the election for Congress.
The question was posed: If the election for Congress were held today, would you vote for [ROTATE] the Democratic candidate in your district or the Republican candidate in your district? [IF UNDECIDED: Well, if you had to vote, which way would you lean?]
The result: 43% said a Democratic candidate, 44% said a Republican candidate, 11% were undecided. In October 2021, those numbers were 39% (D), 46% (R), 12% (U).
When asked which party – the Democrats or Republicans – they felt would do a better job on specific issues, Democrats were favored in climate change, racism, health care, bringing the country together, the coronavirus pandemic, education and protecting American democracy. Republicans were favored in taxes, the federal deficit, immigration, the economy, crime, border security and national security.
The network recently dinged Biden for the fact that the United States has seen a 7% increase in inflation since December. But, they had a misstep in doing so. During the segment, the network used a photo of empty shelves from a 2011 NPR story about Japan, with a picture of President Joe Biden superimposed over it alongside the words “EMPTY SHELVES JOE.”
When Twitter users pointed out the gaffe, the network issued a correction during the next day’s broadcast. “A quick word before we go, during last night’s broadcast we aired a graphic that was believed to contain a current image of empty shelves here in the U.S. It was not and we regret the error,” they said.
You can check out the Fox News survey in its entirety by clicking here.