Jill Biden joins Joe in rock-bottom polling

The First Lady’s recent racial gaffe has seen her favourability slump to its lowest level since her husband took office.

The opinion polls are going from bad to worse for the Bidens. With the president’s approval rating falling to a record low the first lady, Jill, has seen her favourability slump to its lowest level since her husband took office.

A poll for CNN by SSRS, the market research company, found her approval rating had plunged to 34 per cent. That marks a fall of 24 points since she entered the White House last year, when her approval rating was at 58 per cent.

The slump came after a racial gaffe last week that caused deep offence. She was speaking in San Antonio, Texas, to the country’s largest Hispanic civil rights organisation.

She praised the work of Raul Yzaguirre, 82, who was recently awarded America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his work with Unidos, the civil rights group.

The first lady said: “Raul helped build this organisation with the understanding that the diversity of this community – as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio – is your strength.”

The racial stereotyping prompted widespread condemnation, which overshadowed the event.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists advised her “to take the time in the future to better understand the complexities of our people and communities”.

The association added: “We are not tacos. Do not reduce us to stereotypes.”

Michael LaRosa, Jill Biden’s spokesman, said she “apologises that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community”.

Moments before the first lady spoke, Janet Murguia, 61, the current Unidos president, had praised her for appointing Latinos to senior positions on her staff and mentioned the warm welcome she received at a recent meeting at the White House to discuss issues within the Hispanic community.

“We covered a lot of substantive ground that day but I also felt like I made a friend in that visit,” Murguia said as she introduced Biden.

In her wider comments, Biden noted her husband’s efforts to appoint Latinos to posts in his cabinet and to overcome scepticism about the Covid-19 vaccine among Latinos to protect the community from the pandemic.

The timing of her error is unfortunate for the White House as the president and his Democratic Party is fighting to win back Hispanic voters drifting towards to the Republicans before midterm elections in November.

Once seen as a guaranteed Democratic voting bloc, recent polls have shown Latino voters increasingly split between Democrats and Republicans.

More than half the Hispanic American community identifies as Democrat but Republicans have made inroads at recent elections. In key states such as Arizona, Florida and Texas, winning over Latino swing voters will be decisive in each party’s hopes at the midterms, when Republicans aim to take back control of Congress.

The president’s approval rating dropped to 33 per cent in one poll earlier this month. Amid growing pessimism about his performance, the same poll found that almost two thirds of Democrats do not want him to run for the White House again in 2024.

The Times