Biden battered by crises since last State of the Union

President Biden has faced a series of domestic and foreign policy crises since declaring the “State of the Union” strong in his last address to Congress 11 months ago.

“We are stronger today than a year ago,” Biden concluded during his first State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on March 1, 2022. “And we will be stronger a year from now. than we are today.”

However, since the president’s remarks, the nation has struggled to quell the growing influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, gasoline prices have hit an all-time high, and inflation has hit a peak of 40 years, persistent supply chain issues have led to a nationwide crisis. formula shortages, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine escalated with no end in sight, and Biden came under pressure for his mishandling of classified documents when he was vice president.

While Biden’s approval ratings have fallen from 40.6% to 43.9% since his last State of the Union, his approval fell to a paltry 36.8%, his lowest level, in July. 2022, according to an average of polling data compiled by Real Clear Politics. His approval rating remains lower than that of all recent presidents except former President Donald Trump, whose approval rating was 41% at this point in his presidency.

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“If President Biden is looking for an opportunity to alter a mostly static approval rating, the State of the Union is his next best bet,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told AFP. Fox News Digital last week. “Biden needs to turn public opinion on the strength of the union and find common ground to compensate many Americans who view political parties as extreme.”

The most recent crisis to hit the White House was the revelation that a Chinese spy balloon was flying over the United States, gathering intelligence on strategic sites in the Midwest. On Saturday, seven days after the balloon was first discovered by defense officials off the west coast of Alaska and two days after the Pentagon publicly acknowledged it, a US military fighter jet shot the balloon from the sky above the Atlantic Ocean.

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While Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin explained that the late response was to protect Americans who could have been hurt if the ball fell to earth, Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for being too weak. A GOP congressman said the incident was enough to warrant the resignation of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The catastrophic Chinese spy balloon spectacle has clearly threatened American families from Alaska to my home community in South Carolina and confirms that President Biden and Vice President Harris should step down,” Rep. Joe Wilson said. , RS.C., member of the House Armed Services. Committee.

The president has also been heavily criticized over a scandal over how he mishandled classified documents from his tenure in the Obama administration. Over the past few weeks, multiple batches of classified documents, some marked “top secret,” have been found at various locations belonging to Biden, including the Penn Biden Center, his foreign policy think tank, and his wife’s garage. residence in Wilmington, Delaware.

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The White House said it had been transparent about the search for documents, but critics accused Biden of deliberately remaining silent on the scandal until after the 2022 midterm elections to lessen the scandal’s political impact. Some classified documents were found shortly before the November election by the president’s lawyers.

Additionally, last year’s border crisis prompted calls for Biden to take more aggressive action on immigration and some Republicans supported passing a resolution to remove the Secretary of State. Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

“The Department of Homeland Security states that the Secretary’s goal is to ‘secure and manage our borders.’ unwillingness to fix the problems your policies have created,” a group of 11 Texas Republican lawmakers wrote to Mayorkas last month.

According to Customs and Border Protection, migrant encounters in December surpassed 250,000 for the first time on record. Additionally, approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants eluded border agents in less than four months, up from 600,000 reported last year, and border encounters have already reached an all-time high in fiscal 2023.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a House hearing in April 2022.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Biden administration has also grappled with a formula shortage that has wreaked havoc on parents across the country. In mid-February 2022, infant formula maker Abbott Nutrition shut down its production plant in Michigan, leading to a shortage over the following months that stretched into 2023.

“Well, here’s the deal. I became aware of this problem sometime — after April — early April, how intense it was,” Biden said in June. “And so, we did everything in our power from then on, and that’s all I can tell you right now. And we’re going to keep doing that until we got the job done.”

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After receiving criticism over his administration’s response to the crisis, which led to empty shelves in stores across the country, Biden ordered various agencies to dedicate resources to addressing supply chain issues and White House unveiled “Operation Fly Formula” as part of the effort. Since then, dozens of “prep missions” have been conducted, transporting millions of bottles of the prep to the United States from overseas.

And inflation has remained a top concern for Americans since Biden’s last State of the Union address. In June, months after the speech, inflation jumped 9.1% year-on-year, the fastest rise of its kind since 1981.

Rising consumer prices have impacted almost every aspect of American life, from energy and food to housing, clothing and daily consumer goods. Although inflation has fallen below 7%, it remains well above government targets and the Federal Reserve has continued to tighten interest rates, which could have negative repercussions for the wider economy. American.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks Oct. 19 as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm listens. The president ordered the Department of Energy to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on several occasions to combat high gas prices.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Energy prices, such as heating and gasoline costs, have put a particular strain on American families. Pump prices topped $5 a gallon in mid-June, hitting their highest level on record before falling back, but currently remain 46% higher than when Biden took office.

Some of the pressure on energy costs stemmed from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, another crisis Biden faced. Biden has repeatedly stood with other Western countries in support of Ukraine, sending the war-torn country tens of billions of dollars in military aid over the past nearly 12 months.

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“At every step of this horrible war, the American people have been strong and unwavering in their support,” Biden said in remarks Jan. 25.

“And the Democrats and Republicans in Congress have united,” he said. “The United States has worked closely with our allies and partners around the world to ensure that the people of Ukraine are in the strongest possible position to defend their nation, their families, and against brutal aggression – the really brutal aggression from Russia. We haven’t seen that in a long time.”

Experts, however, have predicted that the conflict will continue to rage through 2023, which could be the bloodiest year of the war, likely requiring the president to make additional decisions about how much support he will offer to Ukraine.

Biden is due to deliver his next State of the Union address on February 7.