In a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, President Joe Biden garnered the approval of 60 percent of overall respondents for his overall job performance thus far, which is much higher than the levels of support that Trump regularly got. At the conclusion of his time in power, Trump’s average level of public approval stood at just 38.6 percent, according to the weighted average from FiveThirtyEight. Now, in this new survey, those approving of Biden include 94 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans — and while the level of support among Republicans is lower, it’s higher than the “Biden is a Communist plant” Republican elites would likely have you believe.
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, 70 percent of overall respondents said that they approved of Biden’s job performance, and this high level of approval included 97 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of Republicans. That’s almost half of the GOP on Biden’s side regarding the pandemic! On the subject of the economy, 55 percent of overall respondents said that they approved of Biden’s job performance, and this number included 88 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Republicans.
At present, among other moves, the Biden administration is angling for the quick passage by Congress of an ambitious new COVID-19 economic relief package. The relief already passed the House, and it’s slated for imminent passage in the Senate, although Republicans plotted a slew of procedural maneuvers to punitively drag out the process.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) even objected to moving past the reading of the bill, meaning that Senate staff had to spend hours on end reading the hundreds of pages of legislation aloud. This public reading accomplished nothing — although early Friday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) proposed shortening 20 hours of planned debate to 3, and “no Republican… was around to contest” the change, CNN’s Jim Sciutto reported. Thus, the planned debate time surrounding the bill was drastically shortened, and relief is moving along. It’s not as though there was ever much of a likelihood of Senate Republicans changing their mind on the legislation anyway, although the legislation currently has very broad public support, according to polling.
Dems seem to have outplayed GOP on the Covid delay. After the all-night reading, @ChrisVanHollen simply got up, proposed shortening the debate from 20 hours to 3 and no Republican including @RonJohnsonWI was around to contest. In the end, the dramatic Bill reading delayed nothing
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) March 5, 2021
