Almost three-quarters of Americans said they’re unhappy with President Joe Biden’s handling of inflation, which is now widely considered the country’s top priority for voters.
A record high of 70 percent of the general public said they disapprove of Biden’s response to inflation, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll.
The figure, recorded after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has helped push up oil prices globally, is slightly higher than the 69 percent disapproval Biden received for his handling of inflation in previous ABC/Ipsos polls from the end of January and mid-December.
The survey found the same percentage of respondents are also unhappy with how Biden is handling the surges in gas prices, with 70 percent saying they disapprove of how the president is coping, compared to 28 percent who approve.
Conversely, the same survey showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans (77 percent) support the U.S. banning Russian oil imports even if it means higher gas prices, compared to just 22 percent who oppose it.
Handling of Economic Recovery
The poll also found that that Biden has an all-time disapproval high in ABC/Ipsos polls of 58 percent with regards to his handling of the post-pandemic economic recovery.
While high gas prices aren’t the only manifestation of inflation, they are usually the most visible and painful example of rising living costs for Americans.
Biden has seen a slight increase in his overall popularity in the polls in recent weeks, but the latest numbers for how he is handling inflation are sure to worry the president given that several other polls revealed that the economy has overtaken the pandemic as the No. 1 issue for Americans today.
In response, Biden has suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be blamed for the rising gas prices for invading Ukraine while dismissing Republican suggestions that canceling production on the Keystone XL pipeline—which would have carried hundred of thousands of barrels of oil from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska—is responsible for rising gas prices increasing.
“Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin,” Biden told reporters on March 11. “Let’s get something straight here: The Keystone Pipeline was two years away. It had been two percent finished. Give me a break.”
A number of Republicans have jumped on concerns about inflation to criticize Biden for the rising cost of living.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described Biden’s suggestion that Putin is to blame for rising gas prices, despite inflation increasing in the weeks before the Ukraine invasion, as “laugh-out-loud revisionist history.”
In January, inflation hit 7.5 percent, the highest figure in four decades.