CNN Poll: Biden leaves office with his approval rating matching the lowest of his term

By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

(CNN) — President Joe Biden will leave office with his approval rating remaining at the lowest level of his term and his favorability rating close to his personal low, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Americans broadly view Biden’s four years in office more as a failure than as a success, with his administration doing little to turn around persistent negativity about the state of the country generally or about its economy.

Overall, 36% of US adults say they approve of the way Biden handled the presidency, matching his previous low mark in CNN polling during his term, with even fewer rating his performance positively on immigration (31%), foreign affairs (32%) or the economy (33%). His strongest issues in terms of approval ratings still prompt net-negative results, with less than half saying they approve of the way he protected American democracy (46%), handled environmental policy (44%) or dealt with health care policies (43%).

Biden’s favorability rating, a measure of personal feelings rather than job performance, stands at 33% favorable to 58% unfavorable, just one point off his previous low in CNN polling since he became vice president under Barack Obama in 2009 (he reached that 32% in June 2023). His favorability rating has been mired in the low 30s for much of the past two years.

First lady Jill Biden leaves the White House with a largely neutral favorability rating, about the same as it has been since 2022 – 33% view her favorably and 31% unfavorably with 35% unsure how they feel about her.

Vice President Kamala Harris leaves office with a higher favorability rating than she held shortly before her July entry into last year’s presidential race following Biden’s announcement that he would drop out of the race – 39% have a favorable view now compared with 29% in June – but perceptions of her are still underwater, with about half holding a negative view (50%). At the outset of the Biden presidency in January 2021, Harris’ ratings stood at 51% favorable to 39% unfavorable.

Most Americans, 61%, say they see Biden’s presidency overall as a failure, with 38% viewing it as a success. That lags far behind two presidencies largely seen as successful: Bill Clinton’s (68% considered it a success in 2000) and Barack Obama’s (65% rated it a success in early 2017). Biden’s time in office stands above George W. Bush’s, though, which 68% of Americans judged as more of a failure than a success when he left office in 2009.

Regardless of whether they view Biden’s term as a success or a failure, most say his performance was due more to his own personal actions than to circumstances beyond his control. All told, 42% of Americans say Biden’s time was more of a failure due to personal shortcomings and 23% say that it was a success that rested on his personal strengths. About 1 in 5 (19%) say his presidency failed because of external circumstances and 15% felt he found success for that reason.

Among Democrats, Biden’s end-of-term approval rating stands at 71%, the lowest read among his own partisans in CNN national polling during his time in office. Among independents, 31% now approve of Biden’s handling of the presidency, and 8% of Republicans say the same. Biden rarely managed to push that number into double-digits among Republicans, landing at 10% or higher among Republicans in just three CNN polls over that time. Among political independents, his approval rating dropped below 40% in May 2023 and never again rose that high; he only had one poll (April 2021, around the 100-day mark of his presidency) that found majority approval among independents.

Biden’s presidency never overcame deeply negative feelings about how things are going in the country. When he entered the White House in January 2021, just 22% said things were going at least fairly well in the US – the second most negative rating at the time of a presidential transition in CNN trends on this question dating back to 1981, when Ronald Reagan took over after defeating Jimmy Carter (20% in December 2008 ahead of Obama’s presidency is the low mark). That figure never rose above 39% during Biden’s entire time in office and stands at just 29% now, with 71% saying things are going badly.

At the same time, a brief uptick in views of the country’s economic conditions at the start of Biden’s term turned sour as prices of everyday goods started to rise in 2021, with views of the economy remaining negative even as inflation rates fell and unemployment remained low. The share saying economic conditions were good rose from 43% just ahead of Biden’s inauguration to 54% around the 100-day mark, but quickly dropped back to 37% by the end of 2021. Now, just 28% say the economy is in good shape, with 72% saying it’s in poor condition. Biden’s approval rating for handling the economy has remained below 40% in CNN polling since the start of 2022.

There’s a predictable partisan divide in how Americans view Biden’s use of presidential power: 68% of Republicans say he went too far, while only 6% of Democrats agree with that view. But inside Biden’s party, there’s a division over whether he struck the right balance (51%) or failed to use it enough (44%). That split among Democratic-aligned Americans is even more notable by age: A narrow majority of younger Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say Biden didn’t go far enough (51%) even as most Americans ages 45 or older who align with the Democratic Party say he did the right amount (56%).

The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from January 9-12 among a random national sample of 1,205 adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy and Edward Wu contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.