Biden bolstered by high pandemic marks

Overall approval 61% as president enters third month

Americans are broadly supportive of President Joe Biden’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll finds, and approval of his stewardship of the economy has ticked up following passage of a sprawling $1.9 trillion relief bill.

But Americans are more critical of Biden’s early approach to some of the hot-button issues, including guns and immigration, according to the survey from The Associated PRESS-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The president has outlined goals for tackling both issues but has made clear that they are not his immediate legislative priorities.

Biden’s early weeks in office have made it clear that his top priority is curtailing the pandemic: urging Americans to take precautionary measures to slow the spread of COVID -19, prioritizing the rollout of vaccines and pushing the relief bill through Congress in a party line vote. Vaccine distribution has soared since Biden took office, with more than 96 million Americans having received at least one dose.

Americans have responded favorably to the president’s approach, with 73 percent approving of his handling of the pandemic. That includes about half of Republicans, a rarity given how divided Americans have been along party lines on many key issues in recent years.

Notably, Biden’s approval rating on the economy has ticked up slightly since passage of the relief bill, which included direct payments to millions of Americans and aid to schools and state and local governments. Sixty percent of Americans now say they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, compared with 55 percent a month ago.

Overall, Biden’s job approval sits at a healthy 61 percent as he enters his third month in office, according to the APNORC survey.

Much of Biden’s efforts have been in sharp contrast to former President Donald Trump, who emphasized the need to keep businesses open and the U.S. economy humming, even if that meant flouting public health guidelines for controlling the pandemic. Biden has flipped that approach, but also tried to supplement the economy through the legislation he signed into law in early March.

Americans are split over Biden’s handling of the deficit, with 48 percent saying they approve and 50 percent saying they disapprove. The majority of Democrats — 77 percent — approve, while the majority of Republicans — 83 percent — disapprove.

Biden faces a similar partisan divide on gun policy and immigration, two issues that have disrupted Biden’s carefully laid plans for his opening months in office.

On gun policy, 45 percent say they back Biden’s approach, while 52 percent disapprove. The survey was conducted after a pair of deadly mass shootings. Biden has said he’s considering executive actions to tighten gun restrictions, but has also said he believes “rational” legislation could pass the narrowly divided Senate.

He’s called on the Senate, in particular, to pass measures already approved by the House that would expand background checks, though he’s putting his own political muscle first into a $2 trillion infrastructure package the White House unveiled this week.

Biden is also confronting mounting concerns along the U.s.-mexico border, where the number of families and migrant children arriving is on the rise. Republicans have blamed the increases on Biden’s swift rollback of some of Trump’s most aggressive immigration deterrent policies.

The White House, in turn, has blamed the situation at the border in large part on the conditions it inherited from the Trump administration. In addition to his executive actions, Biden has unveiled a legislative proposal that would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of people currently in the U.S. illegally.

So far, just 42 percent say they approve of how Biden is handling immigration, and a similar share, 44 percent, say they approve of how he’s handling border security.

Foreign policy concerns also loom. The president has a 55 percent approval rating on foreign policy. The poll also finds Americans cite the threat to the U.S. from the spread of infectious diseases and the threat from extremist militant groups as among their top concerns, along with China’s influence around the world.