Biden on low approval: 'Everybody running for reelection at this time has been in the same position'

Biden has held the fewest number of press conferences of any president in more than three decades.

Published: April 26, 2023 3:22pm

President Joe Biden on Wednesday acknowledged his low approval rating but said other presidents running for reelection have been in similar positions.

Biden answered the question about his approval rating during a joint White House press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

He also said answered a reporter's question about polls showing most Americans believe he shouldn't run again.

Biden said he is running again because he has a "job to finish" and thinks he can beat former President Donald Trump again.

Biden said he "may not be the only one" who could beat Trump, "but I know him well and I know the danger he presents to our democracy and I've been down this road before."

Addressing his approval rating, which currently averages at 42.5% according to FiveThirtyEight, Biden said, "Everybody running for reelection at this time has been in the same position. There's nothing new about that."

However, Biden's approval rating is below all other modern presidents by this time in their presidency except for Trump, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, and both Trump and Carter lost their reelection bids.

"With regard to age, I can’t even say I guess how old I am. I can’t even say the number. It doesn’t register with me," the 80-year-old commander-in-chief also said.

He concluded the press conference, which was his third one this year, by taking a question about House Leader Kevin McCarthy's negotiations about extending the debt limit.

"I'm happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended. That's not negotiable," Biden turned around to say after he left the podium.

With an average of just over 10 press conferences a year, Biden has held the fewest number of press conferences of any president since Ronald Reagan, according to data from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.