Americans assess President Biden’s first year in office

As US President Joe Biden marks one year in office on Thursday, how are Americans feeling about his performance?

Though he scored early successes by passing pandemic relief and infrastructure bills, Covid-19 has continued to dominate domestic affairs, while his foreign policy record has been blighted by a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

A growing battle over voting rights is set to shape this year’s midterms, and Mr Biden will need to muster all his political strength to lead his party through it.

But only 42% of Americans currently approve of the president’s performance, compared to more than half when he took office.

Here’s what five Americans from across the political spectrum told us about their commander-in-chief.

Matthew is a progressive Democrat who was not thrilled to vote for Joe Biden and remains sceptical of how much he can achieve.

He sees Mr Biden’s first year as one of “ups and downs”.

“The biggest problem that continues to face us is the pandemic and unfortunately he’s missed the mark. The main goal has been to ramp up vaccine access and I don’t think that’s proven enough given the record highs in hospitalisations and daily cases now,” says Matthews.

He thinks Afghanistan has been Mr Biden’s biggest failure – despite agreeing with the decision to get out. “After 20 years, it was clear that American intervention in Afghanistan was not fruitful by any means. But it was a pretty sloppy withdrawal and we all saw that.”

“Very few Afghans were relocated to the US” in comparison to the number reported to have helped American forces and this was a “shame”, says Matthew.

To make the rest of his term a success, Mr Biden must concentrate on expanding the razor-thin Democratic majority in Congress “so that we’re a little less stuck on the whims of one or two senators when advancing key pieces of legislation”, says Matthew.

Eliana is a Republican who does not identify with Joe Biden’s platform and twice voted for Donald Trump.

She thinks Mr Biden “has created a very poor and weak image for America, especially on the international front”.

Mr Biden’s economic policies “have resulted in crazy high inflation and that has made everyday life for the American people more difficult”, says Eliana.

It feels like everyone right now is just trying to hunker down and make it by,” she says. “I have no idea what these next few years are going to be like. It’s just not fair to the American people.”

Eliana does give the president credit for “making the Covid vaccine accessible to most people regardless of socioeconomic status” – in her view, his biggest success.

“But a lot of people have lost their jobs over vaccine regulations and mandates,” she adds. “The government shouldn’t tell us how to handle our personal health; that is our individual right to choose to take medicine or not.”

She sees his environmental agenda as a failure. “I am very much about saving our Earth, but he took away a huge part of our economy,” Eliana says. “He’s making decisions without looking at the bigger picture”.

Going forward, Mr Biden needs to work to make the lives of ordinary Americans better in order for his unity message to succeed, says Eliana.

“He’s been in politics for so long and he’s never held a normal job so he doesn’t even know how to relate to us small people,” she thinks. “If he really cared about we the people, he would understand we all have to work together”.

Karen, a Democrat, was excited to cast her ballot for the Biden/Harris ticket because she opposed the direction the country was heading in.

She has mixed feelings about his performance, “but overall I’m happy”, Karen says. “I wish he could have gotten a few things – voting rights being the primary one – pushed through, but I think he’s trending in the right direction.”

Like Matthew, she sees Afghanistan as the president’s biggest failure so far. “Afghanistan could have gone a lot smoother, even though I agree with his decision overall,” she says. “I wish the administration had a contingency plan ready to go. They were caught a little flat-footed,” she says.

His biggest success was passing the massive bipartisan $1.2tn infrastructure bill “which our country so desperately needs”, says Karen. “If you travel around the US and outside of the US, you understand how low a priority infrastructure has been for many politicians”.

For her, “passing voting rights legislation and making real huge strides on climate change are critical” for Mr Biden to focus on going forward.

“Feeling like your vote may not count is something I never thought I would even imagine feeling in this country,” she says – but that is beginning to happen. “In 2022, that is a glaring red light Biden has to address.”

An independent frustrated with the country’s increasing polarisation, Fred filled out his 2020 ballot for other races but left the presidential section blank.

“I don’t think he’s doing much to heal the divisions in the country,” Fred says of Mr Biden.

To him, “there are various issues that the administration seems unable or unwilling to address” – from vaccine mandates to the Afghan withdrawal to inflationary pressures. Instead, the messaging is “getting more hostile and combative”, says Fred. “So is the opposition.”

Mr Biden inherited a difficult situation, he says, but in terms of solving the problems, “so far, I’m fairly disappointed”.

He lists the Covid relief package, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the appointment of judges as Mr Biden’s successes, and “there’s a bit more consistent messaging regarding the pandemic compared to the Trump White House,” says Fred.

But he has failed to use his success on infrastructure to pass more bipartisan laws, and has been slow to address inflation and supply chain issues, says Fred.

The administration is not nimble in the face of “emerging events in the world like in Ukraine and Taiwan”, he says. “The president needs to step up foreign policy efforts: be less reactive and plan for when things go wrong.”

He also needs to use his political skill to find unity. “He has an intransigent opposition and there are divisions within his own party,” says Fred.

“I think he needs to moderate his rhetoric a bit when it comes to things people are unhappy about. The tone being taken with people that can’t or won’t get vaccinated is not helpful. How often does somebody change their mind because somebody else is yelling at them? It might play well and get good sound bites, but it’s not going to persuade people.”

Diane could not bring herself to vote for Donald Trump and, switching from Republican to Democrat, she and her husband both voted for Joe Biden.

She gives Mr Biden credit for “doing his best with what he’s got”.

“The Republicans are not willing to deal, discuss or debate anything; they just say no to everything. Trump left a real minefield of problems for him, especially in the beginning with Afghanistan and other stuff,” says Diane.

She agrees with Karen that the infrastructure bill was badly needed, and says Mr Biden’s vaccine rollout has been “extraordinary”.

But he should have spoken up for voting rights “from the beginning”, says Diane.

“His last speech on voting rights was probably the most forceful he’s been since he became president. I don’t know if he was pandering to the more conservative Democrats, but he could have been more aggressive.”

Diane is sceptical that any big legislation can be passed unless Democrats win big in the midterm elections, but outside of passing laws, “it would be nice if we could get Covid under control”.

Overall “the behaviour of this entire White House has been presidential”, she says. “A lot more civilised. No tweets. I’m glad to see that our allies are able to actually talk to and deal with Biden, unlike the last guy.”