Will Biden’s rising approval rating sink after classified documents headache?
How Biden responds to the classified documents story may affect his prospects for 2024
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.President Joe Biden’s approval rating has increased steadily since he hit his nadir toward the middle of last year.
A recent YouGov poll showed that 49.6 per cent of those surveyed approved of his job performance.
He also enjoyed a better-than-expected midterm election and Democrats gained a Senate seat from his native Pennsylvania in November. Inflation, his most stubborn foe, has also steadily declined, though prices remain high and the economy is a major worry for many Americans.
All of this should prime Biden for a potential 2024 run, since most of the promising Democrats will likely get out of his way if he were to seek a second term.
That is what makes the question of how Biden’s team responds to the discovery of classified documents from his time as vice president at his home all the more salient. Over the weekend, it was announced that five additional documents were found at the president’s home in Delaware. The steady drip of new information has proven to be a political headache for the Biden White House.
Republicans are hoping to make hay out of this investigation, and oversight committee chair James Comer sent a letter asking for a visitor log of everyone who came to Biden’s Delaware home, only for the White House to say such a log doesn’t exist.
While Republicans have sought to draw an equivalency between how Donald Trump and Biden handled classified documents, the two cases are starkly different. Trump, for his part, obstructed officials from recovering the documents, while Biden’s team appears to have taken a more proactive approach in returning the recovered documents.
Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, Comer’s counterpart on the oversight committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it was important to keep a “sense of symmetry” regarding the two cases, adding that Trump fought with the federal government about turning over documents for more than a year before the FBI executed a warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
At the same time, Raskin said “I don’t know yet” what should be done if yet more documents are recovered. It is entirely likely that voters themselves might not be able to differentiate between the two presidents. And it remains to be seen whether they will reserve judgement until the investigations are complete.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments