Biden heads to North Carolina to tout work on supply chains as polls give him 33% approval rating

President Joe Biden flies to North Carolina on Thursday morning to tout efforts to strengthen supply chains as he seeks to fight back from opinion polls that now put his approval rating at just 33 percent.

After visiting Iowa on Tuesday, it marks his heaviest week of domestic travel for months.

And six months out from midterm elections it is part of a gamble that the White House can break through voter skepticism with smaller, granular announcements after ditching last year’s bold talk of a transformational agenda, which ultimately failed to make it through Congress. 

On Thursday, Biden will visit Greensboro, North Carolina, to see North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

It is part of an effort to apply pressure on Congress to approve the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which aims to increase funding for domestic production of semiconductors. 

But the scale of the job facing Biden as he seeks to avoid a Democratic wipeout in November was revealed a day earlier.

His approval rating is at an all-time low, according to a Quinnipiac poll which revealed that only 33 percent of respondents believe Biden is doing a good job as president. 

President Joe Biden heads to Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday as he steps up domestic travel to sell his policy successes amid dire poll numbers

A day earlier, a Quinnipiac University poll put Biden’s approval rating at only 33 percent among Americans, and at 26 percent of independents

The numbers are buoyed by Democrats who give him a 76 percent approval rating. On the other hand only 26 percent of independents – crucial voters in any election – approve of his performance, while just three per cent of Republicans approve.

The poll is at the lower end of recent surveys. And The Real Clear Politics polling average has Biden’s approval rating standing at 40.6 per cent. 

The president’s sweeping domestic agenda has stalled, with Democratic opposition undermining his massive Build Back Better spending plan. 

And White House officials acknowledge that the public focus on the war in Ukraine make it more difficult for the president to get his message out.

‘While the world needs to understand and see how he is leading on the war, the country needs to see how he is continuing to lead on the economy,’ Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

‘Being able to continue to speak to our domestic audience about that is a huge priority. And his schedule tells the story of how much of a priority it is.’

The consumer price index increased 8.5% in March from a year ago, a 41-year high

On Tuesday he unveiled plans to expand availability of biofuel blends of gasoline during the summer to try to take the heat out of soaring fuel prices.  

The move, announced during a trip to an Iowa ethanol plant, represents the administration’s latest attempt to tamp down inflation, which hit a new 40-year high on Tuesday.

Inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.5 percent on the same day, a reminder that rising prices are Biden’s biggest liability as Democrats prepare for difficult midterm elections. 

Yet officials say the economy has created 7.9 million jobs since the president took office, but that success has made little impression on voters.