The co-hosts of “The Five” explained why President Biden’s approval rating sank lower than Vice President Kamala Harris‘ rating for the first time in his presidency on Tuesday.
Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy blamed Biden’s 43 percent approval rating on Americans’ “loss of freedom.”
“I think the biggest issue is the loss of freedom that we’ve experienced over the last couple of years,” she said. “It’s this normalization of the government taking control of our lives, whether it’s when and if we can go to church, when we can open our businesses, if our kids can go to school. This is outrageous, and frankly, I think there’s going to be a huge wave for Republicans.”
Co-host Dr. Nicole Saphier attributed Biden’s declining popularity to “the way that he’s handled the pandemic.”
“[I]n that … he completely has politicized the virus,” she said. “He blamed the unvaccinated for spreading it. Now that Democrats are actually getting breakthrough infections, you even have Washington Post saying, ‘I don’t know, we shouldn’t be shaming people for getting COVID.’ Well, we shouldn’t have been shaming anybody all along.”
The Biden administration “completely flubbed the booster rollout,” resulting in the departures of two Food and Drug Administration administrators, Saphier said.
“The best thing” the Biden administration could do before the 2022 midterm elections is to squash the federal vaccine mandates, she said.
“Now more than ever, the president needs to talk to his base,” said co-host Richard Fowler. “If he’s talking to his base, he will have a good [midterm election season]. If he stops talking to his base, he won’t.”
The Biden administration’s strategy “was to undo everything [former President Donald Trump] did,” co-host Tyrus said.
