Majority say Biden will be remembered poorly as president says farewell to the nation: poll

More than half of Americans say that President Biden will be remembered as a below-average or one of the worst presidents in the nation’s history, according to a new national poll.

Just over a third of adults nationwide questioned in a Marist poll released on Wednesday said Biden will be remembered as one of the worst presidents in American history, with another 19% saying he will be considered a below-average president.

Twenty-eight percent of participants offered that Biden’s legacy will be considered average, with 19% saying he would be regarded as an above average or one of the best presidents in the nation’s history.

The poll was released just hours before the president delivers his farewell address to the nation, with just days left before Biden’s term ends and he is succeeded by President-elect Trump in the White House.

In his Oval Office speech, Biden will likely aim to cement his legacy as a president who pushed to stabilize politics at home while bolstering America’s leadership abroad, and as a leader who steered the nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic and made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy.

Biden, in a letter to Americans released early Wednesday morning, emphasized that when he took office four years ago ‘we were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.’

And he touted that ‘today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years.’

But the Marist poll is the second straight national survey to indicate history will likely not view Biden kindly.

According to a USA Today/Suffolk University survey released on Tuesday, 44% of voters nationwide said history will assess Biden as a failed president, with another 27% saying he will be judged as a fair president.

Twenty-one percent of those questioned said history will view Biden as a good president, with only 5% saying he will be seen as a great president.

The president’s single term in the White House ends next Monday, Jan. 20, as Trump is inaugurated as Biden’s successor.

However, according to the USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 44% also said that Trump will be seen by history as a failed president. 

One in five said that Trump would be viewed as a great president, with 19% saying good and 27% saying he would be judged a fair president.

Trump ended his first term in office with approval ratings in negative territory, including 47% approval in Fox News polling from four years ago.

In Marist polling four years ago, as Trump finished his first term, 47% thought he would be remembered as one of the nation’s worst presidents.

Biden stands at 42% approval and 50% disapproval in Marist’s new survey, as the president departs the White House. He stood at 43%-54% approval/disapproval in the USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. However, the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer that was mainly among unvaccinated people.

The plunge in the president’s approval rating was also fueled by soaring inflation – which started spiking in the summer of 2021 and remains to date a major pocketbook concern with Americans – and the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border.

Biden’s approval ratings slipped underwater in the autumn of 2021 and never reemerged into positive territory.

As Trump gets ready to once again assume the presidency, the Marist poll indicates opinions of him remain low, with 44% of Americans viewing him favorably and 49% holding an unfavorable opinion of the incoming president.

However, opinions about Trump’s first term have risen in numerous polls conducted since his convincing victory in November’s presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris. The vice president succeeded Biden in July as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer after the president dropped out of the race following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

The poll also indicates that Americans have high expectations for Trump when it comes to the economy.

‘While many Americans feel the current economy is not working well for them, residents nationally have grown more optimistic about the future of their own finances,’ the poll’s release highlights.

The survey also indicates Americans are divided about Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. 

According to the poll, more than six in 10 disapprove of Trump’s pledge to pardon his supporters who were convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The Marist poll was conducted Jan. 7-9, with 1,387 adults nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.