Biden news today: President’s approval rating sinks to new low as inflation announcement looms

As far as White House pets go, dogs have gotten most of the attention in recent years. But in a video released yesterday, the current administration has offered an update on the life of its new feline resident, Willow:

Coming off his appearance at the White House last week, Barack Obama has tweeted out a message of praise for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, hailing them as agents of “progress” as they try to safeguard and improve the Affordable Care Act.

Mr Obama remains very popular with much of the Democratic base, and it is hoped by some that his return to the campaigning fray could help boost various candidates in an extremely concerning midterm year.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan last August sent Joe Biden’s approval rating into a steady downward slide from which it has never recovered, and a new CBS poll now shows him languishing at a dire 42 per cent.

That figure puts him at levels similar to Donald Trump, who proved historically unpopular during his term. Mr Biden is also polling badly on specific issues like crime and immigration, putting additional pressure on Democrats trying to tout his achievements as they campaign in the midterm elections.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar has more.

Joe Biden today heads to Iowa to all his economic development plan and the bipartisan infrastructure project, both of which he says will help rural and suburban Americans to cope with rising living costs. That makes sense on a day that’s expected to show inflation skyrocketing thanks to multiple factors, but it remains the case that the Hawkeye State has never been especially friendly to Mr Biden, and his party has just seen a high-profile Senate candidate there effectively barred from the nerd.

At his gun safety press conference yesterday, Joe Biden gave a demonstration of how easily “ghost guns” can be put together.

The measures he’s introducing are designed to make it harder to obtain off-the-shelf kits and instructions helping people assemble the weapons at home. Ghost guns were reportedly involved in thousands of crimes in the years 2016-20 alone.

Reflecting on a rash of Covid-19 diagnoses among many of Washington’s most senior figures, including Nancy Pelosi (who remained asymptomatic after testing positive last week), Eric Garcia writes that the political response to the mini-outbreak reflects a stark truth: that with the two main parties deadlocked over a massive Covid relief package, “the fact that Covid is mowing through the District indiscriminately seems to have failed to move Washington.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, whom many Republicans have taken to painting as the face of authoritarianism cloaked in the guise of public health, appeared on MSNBC last night to discuss the trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic and how Americans can expect to live as the virus continues to spread in the form of new variants.

Surprisingly for those who are convinced that he is hellbent on imposing inflexible rules on the population, he stressed the role of personal choice.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy prices to spike, the Biden administration is bracing for a key consumer inflation report on Tuesday.

The report is expected to show that the prices Americans pay soared in March as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the US Labor Department’s previous report — which showed prices rising at a dramatic rate in February — failed to include the majority of the jump in oil and gas costs caused by the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion.

“We expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin’s price hike,” Ms Psaki said.

The US Department of State has ordered all non-emergency government staff and their family members in Shanghai to leave China.

As Covid-19 cases surge, the Department of State has asked all citizens to reconsider their travel to China, according to the latest announcement.

“Reconsider travel to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws and Covid-19-related restrictions,” a statement from the US State Department said.

“Do not travel to the PRC’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Jilin province, and Shanghai municipality due to Covid-19-related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated,” the statement said.

“Reconsider travel to the PRC’s Hong Kong SAR due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

According to the latest poll by CBS and YouGov, President Joe Biden’s approval rating has dropped to an all-time low — with 58 per cent of respondents disapproving of the way he has handled domestic and foreign affairs while in office.

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