Overwhelming Majority Of Americans Approve Of Joe Biden’s Inauguration Speech, Poll Shows

On Wednesday, former Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46tth President of the United States. His first speech as commander-in-chief centered around national unity as he called on the American people to come together and put political differences aside.

According to a poll from Ipsos, an overwhelming majority of Americans approve of the speech. In the poll, a staggering 83 percent of respondents said that the address was very or somewhat good. Virtually all Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of independents rated it as good.

A strong majority of Democrats said that they believe Biden’s rhetoric, but around half of Republicans were skeptical of his claims that he will be able to unite the nation and be a president for every American, regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum or which party they identify with.

“Overall, around two-thirds of Americans believe Biden when he says he will be a president for all Americans, that his soul is in uniting the nation, and that he will fight as hard for those who did not support him as those who did.”

Biden’s appeals to bipartisanship and cross-ideological cooperation seem to have resonated with people across the nation, since the poll also found that “there is broad, bipartisan agreement with the themes” Biden outlined in his address, establishing that both liberals and conservatives agree with his calls for unity and a return to norms and longstanding Democratic traditions.

More than seven in 10 respondents agreed with Biden’s statement that “Democracy is fragile, democracy is precious, and democracy has prevailed.” Similarly, nearly eight in 10 endorsed the Democrat’s suggestion that “Each of us has a duty and responsibility to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”

Biden’s speech also received high marks from Republican lawmakers, who strongly supported Donald Trump when he was in office. Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska all praised Biden for urging unity.

Over the next four years, the Democrat will have to tackle unprecedented crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated the economy and caused record unemployment.

On Thursday, as NBC News reported, Biden will issue a series of executive orders meant to address the COVID-19 crisis. The new administration’s main goal will be giving 100 million shots of the coronavirus vaccine in 100 days.

Jeffrey Zients, Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, said that “trust” is key and vowed that the administration will be “honest, transparent and straightforward with the American people to rebuild that trust.”