Prior to Biden's arrival in Jeddah, the White House took several measures to try to mitigate blowback from an encounter it knew was coming
Prior to Biden's arrival in Jeddah, the White House took several measures to try to mitigate blowback from an encounter it knew was coming

President Joe Biden has seen his public approval ratings take a strong dip in the past year. However, a breakdown of the numbers shows that the dismal number may not be as bad as they seem for Biden and Democrats.

In the last week, Biden's numbers have improved but not by much. Polling from Reuters/Ipsos showed Biden's numbers rebounded after hitting the lowest level of his presidency. In a July 6 report, Biden had just a 36% approval rating and a 59% disapproval rating. On July 12, his approval rating jumped to 39%, and his disapproval rating dipped to 55%.

The net approval ratings at this point of Biden's term are similar to former President Donald Trump at the same time. Trump was not dealing with issues related to the pandemic at the same point as Biden's term.

Another poll showed Biden gaining more ground. Investor's Business Daily (IBD) and TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP) released results of a poll Monday that showed 40% of American adults approve of how Biden is handling the presidency, while 49% disapprove -- a net disapproval of nine percentage points. The bounce was due to an uptick in approval from Democrats.

According to the IBD/TIPP poll, investors approve of Biden's job performance by 49%-44%, while noninvestors disapprove of Biden's job performance, 52%-35%.

Biden's low numbers also may not spell doom for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections or in 2024.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight pointed out that the same Siena/New York Times poll that showed Biden with a historically low 33% approval rating also showed a very tight race for the House and Senate.

When the survey's responders were asked which party they preferred to control Congress, Silver noted that polls showed Democrats led by 1 percentage point among registered voters and trailed by 1 point among likely voters.