CNBC Survey Finds Highest Inflation in 40 Years is Damaging Democrats: 2022 Election Could Be ‘Historically Bad’
CNBC’s Steve Liesman said Friday the network’s polling indicated voter approval was plummeting for President Joe Biden and his party amid sky-high inflation numbers and declining voter approval for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our Republican and Democratic pollsters tell us … the question here is not whether Democratic losses will be bad in November,” Liesman said in a morning segment with Becky Quick. “It is whether they will be historically bad.”
Biden’s approval in CNBC’s All-America Economic survey released on Friday stands at 41 percent compared to 50 percent who disapprove, a nine-point deficit akin to the rating his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, held through most of his term in office.
However, Liesman noted, the numbers were quickly getting worse, both for Biden specifically, and for the Democratic Party more broadly. The number who said they approved of Biden’s handling of Covid-19 stood at 46 percent compared to 48 percent who said they disapproved, giving him an approval deficit in that area for the first time since he took office.
On handling the economy, the survey showed Biden with a whopping 19-point deficit, with 37 percent of Americans approving next to 56 percent who said they disapproved. Accordingly, those who said they viewed unemployment as their top concern said they preferred Republicans by a 24-point margin.
Worse yet for Democrats, the survey indicated a 12-point shift since October in terms of which party the public would like to see control Congress. By a 44-34 percent margin, respondents said they would prefer Republicans take control next year, a dramatic shift from October, when Democrats held a two-point advantage, 43-41.
“When you dig into the details of this survey, it could not be better for Republicans or worse for the Democrats,” Liesman said.
The survey’s release came the same morning the Labor Department released an update to the consumer price index showing inflation had reached its fastest pace since 1982. The CPI rose .8 percent for the month of November, putting the year-over-year figure for the first 11 months of 2021 at 6.8 percent. It included 800 respondents and had a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
Watch above via CNBC
