Joe Biden will face the media Wednesday afternoon for his first official press conference in months, as the US President seeks to sell his record and fight a drop in the public’s approval rating after a year as president.
Biden’s press conference at the White House comes ahead of his first anniversary in office, at a time when he is facing multiple crises at home and abroad, including a protracted coronavirus pandemic, sharp spikes in consumer prices and the continued threat of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The latest Gallup poll shows that 40% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing, 56% disagree. That compares with 38% approval for Donald Trump a year into his presidency and 49% approval for Barack Obama at the same time in his term.
Democrats fear that low approval rates could spell disaster for their party midterm this year, when control of both the House and Senate will be taken. Biden’s party currently controls both houses of Congress by the margin.
Biden began his presidency with widespread public support, but his approval ratings began to decline over the summer as the tumultuous U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan tested the… American alliances abroad and raise suspicion in the eyes of many Americans.
More recently, the White House has struggled to come up with a plan to handle the robust economy, with gasoline prices soaring and record highs. inflationary. The latest official figures showed US consumer price growth accelerated at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years in December.
At the same time, Biden’s legislative agenda has stalled on Capitol Hill, after the president and congressional leaders fell out of favor with him. Build back better social safety net package and voting rights legislation.
Supporters argue that Biden and the White House have failed to effectively sell their gains to date, including a $1.9 billion Covid-19 relief bill and a hefty sum of money. $1.2 billion infrastructure package.
Biden has held relatively fewer press conferences than his predecessors, according to data compiled by the American Presidents Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. One year into his four-year term, he held nine press conferences, alone or in a joint setting with other world leaders, according to UCSB. By comparison, Trump held 21 press conferences in his first year in office and Obama faced the press 27 times.
