Biden hits 59 percent approval rating in Pew poll

A majority of Americans — 59 percent — approve of President Biden’s handling of his job as he approaches 100 days in office, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Friday.

The poll found Biden’s job approval is up 5 percentage points from 54 percent in March, while 39 percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of his work thus far.

Biden’s 59 percent approval rating is 20 percentage points higher than that of former President Trump’s in a Pew poll from April 2017 and is similar to the approval ratings of former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush in April of their first terms.

Biden has been buoyed by support for his tone and rhetoric, as well as his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pew poll found 72 percent of Americans believe the Biden administration has done an excellent or good job managing vaccine production and distribution

Forty-six percent said they like how Biden conducts himself in the job, compared to 27 percent who don’t, and 44 percent of respondents said they believe Biden has changed the tone of political debate for the better, compared to 29 percent who said he’s made it worse.

Biden still faces challenges on some policy fronts, according to the poll. The number of Democrats and Republicans who believe illegal immigration is a major problem both increased from a year ago as Biden grapples with a surge in migrants at the southern border.

The Pew poll surveyed 5,109 adults from April 5 to 11, which was days before the Biden administration recommended pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The poll has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.

Public polling in Biden’s first months in office has generally shown the public gives him high marks on his handling of the pandemic and his overall approval rating.