Biden’s favor on the rise as majority of Americans think he’s handling the transition well



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Biden will take office with a reserve of goodwill in his corner: Two-thirds of Americans approve (66%) of the way Biden is handling the presidential transition, and his favorability rating has climbed 7 points from a pre-election poll. election in October (59% consider it favorably now, against 52% at the time).

The public is less optimistic about the way the rest of Washington’s elected officials are handling the transition. Most disapprove of President Donald Trump’s combative management of the time since the election (70% disapprove), and his Republican colleagues in Congress receive equally negative criticism (66% disapprove). About half (51%) approve of the way Democrats in Congress have handled it.

Once Biden is sworn in and the Georgia Senate second-round results are certified, Democrats will control the Presidency, House, and Senate. Most Americans say single-party control will be good for the country (53%), more than those who said the same about Republican control of the Presidency and Congress after the 2016 election (49%), but less than those who thought. on democratic control after 2008 (59%).

Most say it’s likely Biden will achieve several key goals, including signing another coronavirus stimulus bill (83% say it’s very or fairly likely), restoring relationships with the allies (74%), ensuring that 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines are administered within 100 days of his presidency (70%) and establishing a government-run health insurance option that anyone could buy ( 64%).

But he remains skeptical of his ability to ease political divisions in the country (53% say it’s unlikely). And the Republicans Biden would need to call on to be successful are the most likely to say it won’t work (88% unlikely).

The poll shows that Biden’s own views are starting out strongly polarized, with a partisan gap in expectations for his presidency as large as the one Trump faced at the start of his term in 2017, and considerably larger than the partisan divide. in Barack Obama’s expectations before he takes his place.

CNN poll: Trump approval rate hits new low at end of term

Overall, 61% of adults expect Biden to do a very good or fairly good job as president, more than said about Trump in 2017 (48%), but well in below the share that expected good things from Obama before taking office (79%).

Almost all Democrats expect Biden to do well as president, 96%, as has been said about Obama. But among Republicans, the share that expects Biden to do a good job as president is 40 points lower than that who said the same about Obama (57% of Republicans said Obama would do a good job, while 17% say Biden will).

This 79 point chasm between Democrats and Republicans over Biden is identical to the gap between Republicans and Democrats in January 2017 on whether Trump would do a good job as president (93% of Republicans said he would do a good job as president). good job against 14% of Democrats).

New Vice President Kamala Harris’s favor ratings are higher than they’ve been at any point in CNN’s poll of her. Overall, 51% have a favorable opinion, 39% an unfavorable opinion. Opinions about Harris are also split by party, with 90% of Democrats saying they have a favorable opinion of her compared to 9% of Republicans.

Jill Biden’s favorability rating is largely positive and about as high as that of her husband (58% have a favorable opinion of the future first lady) and 28% express a negative opinion of her.

As was the case during last year’s presidential campaign, Democrats and Republicans live in completely different worlds when asked what the biggest problems are in the country today.

Overall, 46% say the coronavirus outbreak is the biggest problem, with 21% choosing political divisions, 15% the economy, 10% racial injustice and 7% national security. Among Democrats, 65% say the coronavirus is the biggest problem, with racial injustice in second place at 16%. Among Republicans, however, 32% choose political divisions, 30% the economy, 25% the coronavirus, and less than 1% say it is racial injustice.

Party majorities, however, say things are bad in America today: 77% say so overall, including 91% Democrats, 77% Independents, and 61% Republicans. That’s the largest proportion of people saying things are going wrong in CNN polls since April 2009.

Republicans’ views on the state of the country have worsened considerably since October (from 77% saying things were fine then to 37% now). This is typical of a party that loses the presidency, but it’s a steeper drop than among Democrats after their loss in the 2016 election (from 85% saying things were fine before the election to 61% before the election inauguration of Trump).

And perceptions of the economy are worse than they were at the start of Trump’s tenure: 43% say it is healthy today compared to 57% in January 2017.

About 6 in 10 overall (61%) say they think the country will be better in four years than it is today, more than in January 2017 (47%). But that too is divided by party. Among Democrats, 95% say the country will be better in four years, while 73% of Republicans say it will be worse.

Methodology

The survey methodology and weighting have changed from previous CNN surveys. Cell phone interviews accounted for 75% of the total, compared to 65% in previous surveys. The dialing lasted six days rather than four, which made it possible to put more effort into contacting those who are not easily reachable. Population weighting was adjusted to account for more distinct education categories broken down by race, and a geographic weight was applied to ensure a representative distribution by population density. Additionally, the results were weighted for partisan and lean identification among independents, with goals calculated using an average of the current poll plus three recent CNN polls.

The new CNN poll was conducted by the SSRS Jan. 9-14 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer. The results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

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