Trump Approval Rating Hits Lowest Point While Joe Biden’s Approval Skyrockets

A new CNN poll finds that Donald Trump’s approval rating has reached its lowest point with only 35 percent of respondents saying they approve of the president. The drop in ratings could be related to how President Trump responded to last week’s deadly Florida school shooting, as a new CBS News poll this week finds that only 33 percent of Americans approved of the way Donald Trump handled the Florida shooting. While Donald Trump’s approval rating sinks again, Project 538 reported that multiple polls are showing former Vice President Joe Biden’s approval rating hitting the top of the list for presidential hopefuls for Democrats in 2020.

CNN reported that the current 35 percent approval rating for the president is “his lowest level yet.” Fifty percent said they disapproved of how he handled the shooting.

In the CBS News poll following the Florida shooting, only 33 percent of Americans approved of how he handled the situation. Donald Trump lost support from Republicans in this poll as well, with only 69 percent of Republicans approving of the way he handled the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. That’s a drop from the typical amount of support the president gets from Republicans, which generally hovers around the 80 percent mark.

In the CNN poll of Trump’s approval rating, 80 percent of Republicans said they approve of President Trump, with 81 percent saying they approved of the president in the CNN approval rating poll before this week. However, fewer Republicans by twenty points approve of how he handled the Florida shooting.

The CBS News poll also found that 54 percent of Americans disapproved of how Trump handles his gun policies.

Meanwhile, with this being an election year, and campaigning for 2020 just around the corner, the polls for presidential hopefuls for 2020 have already begun. Project 538 is reporting that in all polls on presidential politics for 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden is coming out on top.

Joe Biden has not said whether or not he is running in 2020, but he also hasn’t said outright that he is not. He has remained active on Twitter in politics and has also established an organization called American Possibilities that supports Democratic candidates in upcoming elections. He also went to Twitter to make a statement about the Parkland shooting, with a tweet that received over 17 thousand retweets.

I am at a loss for what more to say. I grieve with the families in Parkland today. I grieve with the families across the country who have suffered loss due to gun violence. Congress has a moral obligation to take action and spare more families from this violence.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 15, 2018

One American citizen responded to Joe Biden’s tweet with a simple statement, “I’m a gun owner. I agree.”

Joe Biden has not put his hat in the ring, but he is thus far the crowd favorite, at least when it comes to Democrats. Project 538 reported that in a recent New Hampshire poll, Joe Biden took the number one spot as being the Democrats top choice for the nomination in 2020 with 35 percent approval.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was the second choice pick with 24 percent approval, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts came in third with 15 percent. Project 538 reported those New Hampshire numbers match national numbers on the same Democrats.

In a Harris/Harvard University poll on the same subject, Joe Biden’s approval rating was 24 percent, with Senator Sanders approval being 16 percent. A Survey Monkey poll has Joe Biden out on top as well with 22 percent.

CNN also conducted a random hypothetical poll running Joe Biden against Donald Trump, with numbers favoring Joe Biden at 57 percent to Donald Trump’s forty percent. In that same CNN poll assessing hypotheticals, Oprah Winfrey also received 51 percent approval, over Donald Trump’s 42 percent.

While Oprah Winfrey has said she is not running for president, Joe Biden has not made any statement either way. Primary campaigning is likely to start shortly after the November 2018 mid-terms, and statements will need to be made soon.

Gun control could be a significant issue in the upcoming elections, both in mid-terms and for the next presidential election. The latest polling out of Quinnipiac University News found that 97 percent of respondents approved of background checks for gun buyers, and are showing the highest level of support for stricter gun laws since Quinnipiac started asking about it in 2013.

The same Quinnipiac University poll also found that only 18 percent of Americans believe the president has been faithful to his wife, with 56 percent saying they do not think he has been faithful. Sixty-one percent in the same poll disapproved of Donald Trump’s idea of a military parade.

Many of Trump’s own voters are expressing their disapproval on Twitter. One voter recently told him that “boasting” was “not presidential.” Another Trump voter tweeted to him that he was losing his base “faster than you can imagine” by talking gun rights.

Mr. Trump,
I voted for you but really… boasting is not presidential.

— Shelton Shivers (@ShiversSrs) February 19, 2018

@realDonaldTrump I voted for you, but you are losing your base faster than you can imagine by touching Gun Rights. No law can prevent a tragedy like this one or any other. Criminals don’t follow the law.

— Adam Gregory (@Gregory11A) February 21, 2018

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is skyrocketing in approval ratings. NBC News reported that Joe Biden is also “tiptoeing” towards a presidential campaign. While he has not made any statements publicly, he has just opened a new office outside the Capitol Building. He called a meeting there this week with some of his closest political allies, reportedly sussing out the “elephant in the room,” the notion of a presidential bid.

Before this meeting, Joe Biden said that he was not making a decision yet and that his only focus was “electing a Democratic Congress to stop this erosion of the core of who we are.” He said he would “look at that a year from now.” The end of that year is inching closer.

Here’s former Vice President Joe Biden talking to Ellen Degeneres in 2017 about a possible presidential run. He also shared his thoughts with her on the current administration.

To date, Joe Biden has said he still hasn’t made a decision, but we know now it’s a conversation he’s put on the table. This is one step closer to a presidential run for Joe Biden.

As he weighs his options, so does America. This was evidenced by the new historic lows in Donald Trump’s approval ratings this week.