Biden on dip in poll numbers: ‘That’s not why I ran’

President Biden on Sunday shrugged off his slumping approval ratings in recent weeks as he met with global leaders in Europe, arguing cyclical polls are part of the job and that he’s focused on his agenda.

“The polls are going to go up and down and up down,” Biden said at a press conference at the conclusion of the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit in Rome. “They were high early, then they got medium, then they went back up, now they’re low. Well look, look at every other president. The same thing has happened.”

“That’s not why I ran. I didn’t run to determine how well I’m going to do in the polls,” Biden continued. “I ran to make sure that I followed through on what I said I would do as president of the United States.”

Biden said he would remain focused on addressing climate change, improving prospects for American workers and dealing with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“We’ve done all of those, we continue to do them, and we’ll see what happens,” Biden said. “But I’m not running because of the polls.”

Biden’s press conference came hours after a new NBC News poll found his approval rating had fallen to 42 percent, down from 53 percent in April.

The NBC poll tracks with a number of other polls in recent weeks that have shown Biden’s approval rating down from the summer and spring months, as the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan unfolded and the economy faced fits and starts as the COVID pandemic dragged on. 

A RealClearPolitics average of polls showed Biden’s approval rating at 42 percent as of the end of October, down from an average of 50 percent in mid-August.