Americans give Biden conflicting grades on COVID, guns and immigration, poll finds

A majority of Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy — but the 46th president has lower ratings for issues including immigration and gun violence, according to a new poll.

Seventy-two percent of Americans said in an ABC/Ipsos poll that they approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said the same before Congress passed Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which, among other things, provided $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans.

A majority of respondents — 75% — said they approve of the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, the poll found, while 60% approve of how Biden is handling the country’s economic recovery.

Biden’s overall approval rating has held steady throughout the first few months of his presidency, standing at 54% approval and 39.7% disapproval, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregation of polls. At the same time in their presidencies, former President Barack Obama had a 59.5% approval rating, while President Donald Trump had the approval of 41.8% of Americans.

Negative ratings for immigration, guns

However, a majority of Americans — 57% — give negative ratings for Biden’s handling of immigration issues amid a surge of thousands of unaccompanied children at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The number of migrants crossing the border increased 28% last month, with more than 18,000 migrant children in U.S. custody as of Thursday, resulting in minors being sheltered in tents and other makeshift housing due to the large influx, Forbes reported.

Fifty-four percent of Americans said in the poll that the situation with migrants is a “crisis” while 42% said it was a “serious problem, but not a crisis.”

While a majority of Americans — 57% — also disapprove of Biden when it comes to his response to gun violence, two-thirds of respondents in the poll said pursuing policies to reduce gun violence should be prioritized over protecting the right to own guns.

The poll comes after a series of shootings at massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, left eight people dead, including six Asian women, on March 16. Less than a week later, a 21-year-old opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killing 10 people.

In the wake of the shooting, Biden called for renewing the ban on assault rifles and passing stricter background checks for gun sales.

Partisan divide remains strong

A majority of Democrats support Biden on every issue, although his approval ratings on the issues of guns and immigration are lower than his ratings for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nine in 10 Democrats said in the poll that they support laws to curb gun violence while 36% of Republicans said enacting stricter gun control laws is a “priority.” Meanwhile, 64% of Republicans said protecting the right to own guns is a priority.

There’s an even divide over whether Biden is dividing the country, too. In the poll, 30% said Biden is uniting the country, while 30% said he is doing the opposite..

A majority of Republicans gave Biden a positive rating on just one issue: coronavirus vaccine distribution.

But overall, as the poll noted, “there is a forty-point approval gap – or more – between Democrats and Republicans on each of the issues in the poll.”

The poll was conducted Mar. 26-27 with a sample size of 517 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 10:19 AM with the headline "Americans give Biden conflicting grades on COVID, guns and immigration, poll finds."