Americans back Biden’s early handling of pandemic but not on guns and immigration, new poll shows

A new poll has shown that 73% of Americans approve of President Joseph Biden’s handling of the coronavirus in his first three months in office.

Americans are broadly supportive of Joe Biden’s early handling of the pandemic, a new poll has found, but are more critical over his policies on gun control and immigration.

More than 70% of citizens, including around half Republican voters, showed general approval of the 78-year-old new president’s handling of the coronavirus, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A $1.9 trillion relief bill has also contributed towards a 60% endorsement of his stewardship of the rebounding US economy, compared to 55% last month.

But citizens are more critical of the Democrat’s early approach to some of the hot-button issues that are moving to the forefront, including gun control and immigration.

The survey, which was carried out after a pair of deadly mass shootings, one in Atlanta that killed eight people, including six Asian Americans, and another at a grocery store in Colorado that left 10 people dead, found that 52% disapproved of his policies which had outlined goals, but not made the issue a top priority.

“I’m going to deal with all those problems. The question is the priorities as they come and land on my plate,” Biden said in a news conference last week.

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His early weeks in office have made it abundantly clear that his top priority is curtailing the pandemic: urging Americans to take precautionary measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, prioritizing the rollout of vaccines and pushing the relief bill through Congress in a party line vote.

Vaccine distribution has soared since Biden took office, with more than 96 million Americans having received at least one dose.

Americans have responded favorably to the president’s approach, with 73% approving of his handling of the pandemic, the poll found.

That includes about half of Republicans, a rarity given how divided Americans have been along party lines on many key issues in recent years.

Gwen Medley, 66, a nurse from Galveston, Texas, who has been administering vaccines in her state, told AP she was critical of Biden on a range of other issues, including immigration, but that the president is doing a “pretty good job” on the pandemic so far.

But she credited it partly to the vaccine efforts he inherited from the Trump administration.

“Trump got the ball rolling, and Biden is continuing to push that ball,” Medley said.

Notably, Biden’s approval rating on the economy has ticked up slightly since passage of the relief bill, which included direct payments to millions of Americans and aid to schools and state and local governments.

Overall, Biden’s job approval sits at a healthy 61% as he enters his third month in office, according to the AP-NORC survey.

That’s well above the approval ratings for his predecessor, Donald Trump, at this same point in his presidency.

Trump’s overall approval rating never topped 50% in an AP-NORC survey.

Biden and his advisers contend that despite the litany of issues facing the country, he will be judged foremost on his handling of the pandemic, now in its second year.

The virus has killed more than 550,000 people in the US, and even with vaccines more accessible, some states are experiencing a surge in cases as new variants take hold.

“Our work is far from over,” Biden said this week as he implored states to keep mask mandates and other restrictions in place. “The war against COVID-19 is far from won. This is deadly serious.”

Much of Biden’s efforts have been in sharp contrast to Trump, who emphasized the need to keep businesses open and the U.S. economy humming, even if that meant flouting public health guidelines for controlling the pandemic.

Biden has flipped that approach, but also tried to supplement the economy through the legislation he signed into law in early March.

No Republicans in Congress voted for the measure, with some arguing that it unnecessarily added to the federal budget deficit at a time when the economy was already moving in a more positive direction.

Americans are split over Biden’s handling of the deficit, with 48% saying they approve and 50% saying they disapprove. The majority of Democrats — 77% — approve, while the majority of Republicans — 83% — disapprove.

Biden faces a similar partisan divide on gun policy and immigration, two issues that have quickly disrupted Biden’s carefully laid plans for his opening months in office.

On gun policy, 45% say they back Biden’s approach, while 52% disapprove.

The survey was conducted after a pair of deadly mass shootings, one in Atlanta that killed eight people, including six Asian Americans, and another at a grocery store in Colorado that left 10 people dead.

The survey was conducted following a mass shooting in Atlanta that left six Asian Americans dead and sparked protests against Asian American racism (REUTERS)

Biden has said he’s considering executive actions to tighten gun restrictions, but has also said he believes “rational” legislation could pass the narrowly divided Senate.

He’s called on the Senate, in particular, to pass measures already approved by the House that would expand background checks, though he’s putting his own political muscle first into a $2 trillion infrastructure package the White House unveiled this week.

Biden is also confronting mounting concerns along the U.S.-Mexico border, where the number of families and migrant children arriving is on the rise.

Republicans have blamed the increases on Biden’s swift rollback of some of Trump’s most aggressive immigration deterrent policies, moves the White House has warned should not be viewed as an open invitation to cross the border.

The White House, in turn, has blamed the situation at the border in large part on the conditions it inherited from the Trump administration.

In addition to his executive actions, Biden has unveiled a legislative proposal that would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of people currently in the U.S. illegally.

So far, just 42% say they approve of how Biden is handling immigration, and a similar share, 44%, say they approve of how he’s handling border security.