It’s no secret that President Joe Biden is suffering in the court of public opinion. Yet new data suggests his problems may run even deeper than he realized.
The Trafalgar Group and the Convention of States conducted a poll of over 1,000 likely voters from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5. The survey had a margin of error of +/- 2.98 percentage points.
Its goal was to understand Americans’ feelings about the Biden administration following its heavily criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I always feel like the news only partially reflects what’s going on out there on the ground,” Convention of States president Mark Mecker told The Western Journal on Thursday.
“So we like to go out and poll likely voters so that we can help promote what regular folks really think.”
If the poll results are any indication, those regular folks are not supremely confident in the Biden administration.
Of the 1,079 respondents, 56.8 percent felt President Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal made another 9/11-style attack on the U.S. more likely.
Over one-third of Democrats and half of independents thought a 9/11-style attack was more likely thanks to Biden.
“I think that we always need to look at … independents, no party affiliation, because these people are the swing voters that are going to make the difference,” Mecker said.
In addition, the poll asked respondents how confident they were that the Biden administration could successfully lead the country based on its handling of the Afghanistan crisis.
Fifty-five percent said they were not confident the administration could successfully lead America, including 32.7 percent of Democrats.
However, Mecker said the 53.9 percent of independents who said they did not trust the administration should concern Biden the most.
Only 45.5 percent of independents said they were confident in the Biden administration.
“It’s extraordinary,” Mecker said of that eight-point deficit, “and that’s very difficult to overcome in an electoral sense. That’s enough to swing the election for sure if it stays that way.”
The Afghanistan crisis comes at a particularly inconvenient time for the Biden administration. Instead of notching a political win before 9/11, Biden has now lost the trust of many voters.
“The reason for pulling out when he pulled out is he was looking for the photo op on 9/11, and he was saying, ‘Hey, here we are 20 years out. We wound all this stuff up and we put a bow on a tidy package,’” Mecker said.
“And so he was counting on a bump in the polls from this, I think. And instead what he’s going to get — I don’t even know how he’s going to handle 9/11 at this point because the vast majority of Americans believe he’s made it more dangerous.”
It appears the administration itself is also at a loss as it tries to address the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in light of the Afghanistan debacle.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that Biden will not address America live on Sept. 11, 2021.
The numbers show Biden is losing support among Americans at large. Democrats, Republicans and independents are all questioning his ability to lead America, and Mecker predicts this will be reflected at the ballot box.
“I think you’re pointing at — barring any radical changes that I’m not anticipating — an electoral slaughterhouse in 2022 where the Republicans take advantage.”