With just over 40 days remaining in his presidency, Joe Biden is expected to leave office with voters ranking him as our worst modern president, with his pardon of son Hunter Biden — after claiming for a year he wouldn’t do so — making a bad situation even worse. J.L. Partners polled 1,006 registered voters and asked them to rank Biden and every other president, reaching back to Richard M. Nixon, with Biden scoring lower than Nixon.
“Some 44 percent placed [Biden] as one of the worst two, while only 14 percent placed him in the top two, giving him a net score of 30 points underwater,” reports the Daily Mail. “That was worse than Nixon, who came out with negative 25, and Donald Trump, with negative 15.” Ronald Reagan secured first place by a wide margin with a score of +30. Barack Obama surprisingly took second place with +21. Bill Clinton ranked third with +17. George W. Bush holds a +1, Jimmy Carter is at zero, and George H.W. Bush sits at -1. “James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners which conducted the poll, called it a ‘diabolical’ result for Biden,” the report adds.
“There’s always a recency bias and as Joe Biden is the incumbent, he starts off at a disadvantage there,” the pollster told the Daily Mail. “Voters have obviously looked at his age, general conduct in office, his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the situation at the southern border, and decided that, in their view, it qualifies him to be the worst president in modern history.” He added that Biden went from “the man who beat Trump to the man who let him back in, and who voters feel has been fundamentally a bad president.” In a separate poll conducted on December 2 with 806 registered voters, 52 percent expressed that the Hunter pardon was “wrong,” while only 29 percent believed it was the right decision.
The first poll conducted following Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter reveals widespread disapproval, with signs that it may have ignited growing frustration among Democrats regarding the administration’s performance. In a survey by Napolitan News Service shared with Secrets on Thursday, only 30% of registered voters supported the broad pardon. The majority, 62%, opposed it, with 41% expressing strong disapproval.
Biden had consistently promised not to pardon his son, Hunter, who has faced gun and tax charges. However, this week, he reversed course, granting a pardon that covers an 11-year period. Biden has stated that he believes Hunter was unfairly targeted by prosecutors, echoing a sentiment expressed by President-elect Donald Trump about the weak cases he faced. However, the public’s view, according to the new survey, diverged from Biden’s defense. About 54% disagreed with the president’s rationale, while on Trump, 46% believed the Justice Department unfairly targeted him, compared to 42% who disagreed, the Washington Examiner reported.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen told the outlet that his poll indicates Democrats are reassessing their support for Biden, who is currently experiencing his lowest approval rating to date. The New York Times also criticized the pardon on Thursday, calling it “a significant misstep that could cause lasting damage.”
“In this hyper-partisan world, it’s stunning that only 52% of Democrats support the president’s pardon. This is just the beginning of partisan re-evaluation. I suspect the anger at Biden among Democrats is ready to bubble over. Over time, the party will come to believe that the only reason they lost in 2024 is because Biden selfishly tried to run for re-election,” Rasmussen said. And, he added, “It’s also interesting to note that more voters think Trump was prosecuted unfairly than believe that about Hunter.”
