Kamala Harris Joins Joe Biden In Reaching Historically Low Approval RatingSouth Front

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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

US Vice President Kamala Harris has the lowest approval rating of any vice president in their first term since 1990. According to the latest polls, the ratings of vice presidents are linked to the presidents. If proven true, this will be disastrous for Harris since Joe Biden is currently less popular than Donald Trump.

According to the American poll-focused blog FiveThirtyEight, Harris’ approval rating fell from 41.7% to 36.3% from January 1 to December 5. A poll by the Los Angeles Times found that as of December 18, only 39% of registered voters had a favourable opinion of Harris, and 55% had an unfavourable opinion, a net rating of -16 percentage points. These results show that Harris is less popular among voters than US President Joe Biden, a head of state with historic unpopularity. Furthermore, the current vice president’s approval rating is lower than what Mike Pence, Dick Cheney and Al Gore had during their first term.

Voters may be paying more attention to Harris than previous vice presidents due to concerns about the age of Biden, who in 2020 became the oldest US president in history. If he wins re-election, he will be 82 years old on Inauguration Day and 86 years old at the end of his second term.

According to a September CNN poll, 77% of all voters, including 65% of Democrats, say they are concerned about Biden’s age and suitability for office. Harris would be sworn in as president if Biden failed to complete his second term.

Although Biden has two primary opponents who are polling better than many of former President Donald Trump’s opponents, the Democratic Party all but cancelled the primaries, refusing to hold debates and putting only Biden on the ballot in several states, such as Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

“To realise just how unpopular Kamala Harris is, you have to keep in mind the historical significance of it all. No one in her position has had this low of favourabilities in a first term since Dan Quayle,” declared the leader of the American Policy Center from University College London, Thomas Gift, to the American news magazine Newsweek.

“That’s saying something. So it’s no surprise, especially with Biden’s age, that Republicans keep hammering home a simple point: a vote for Biden is a vote for Harris,” he added.

If the Democratic Party hopes that Harris’ relative youth can ease voters’ concerns, these polling numbers add another cause for concern for the Democratic Party National Committee.

For his part, Biden’s approval ratings have been low for more than a year, and recent polls have found him trailing former US President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, in a head-to-head match-up and key swing states.

A Monmouth University poll released on December 18, only days prior to a Wall Street Journal poll showing Biden with a 37 percent approval rating, found that the current US President hit a new low of 34 percent. In contrast, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ national polling averages, Trump holds a 2 percent lead over Biden.

In fact, sources close to the US president told The Hill that advisers, internal White House aides and external personal confidants, have met with Biden to discuss Trump, the negative polling and how to message the president’s accomplishments effectively.

One source told the outlet that the meetings had occurred because of “deep frustration” over polls.

“The meetings are intended to discuss messaging on his age and his accomplishments. There has been concern among his inner circle that the messaging has not been strong or consistent enough to break through with the public,” the source said.

Given Harris and Biden’s declining approval in the polls, it is little wonder that the Colorado Supreme Court issued a surprise decision to remove Trump from the primary ballot in that state, making Democrats excited that this could be repeated in other states. However, hopes were dashed when the US Supreme Court on December 22 rejected a request by the special counsel to expeditiously decide whether Trump has immunity from federal prosecution over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

With the Supreme Court’s rejection of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request, the appeals court will now first hear the immunity case, which could make it difficult to maintain the March trial date. Due to this, Trump welcomed the Supreme Court’s move and said he was looking forward to presenting his arguments before the appeals court, stressing on his Truth social media platform, “Of course I am entitled to Presidential Immunity.”

“I was President, it was my right and duty to investigate, and speak on, the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election,” he said, repeating his claims to have won the previous election.

It is evident that the American establishment does not want Trump to return and is using every non-fatal method to prevent him from running in next year’s election, where he has a serious chance of becoming president again, especially considering Biden’s failure to improve the lives of the average American in the post-pandemic period. Yet, it is seemingly apparent that the Democrats will insist on Biden and Harris despite their historic low approval ratings.