During an interview this week, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Democrat President Joe Biden, saying that former President Jimmy Carter, who is considered by many to be one of the worst presidents in modern American history, was more successful than Biden.
“They did everything they could to get Biden elected, the guy who campaigned from his basement,” DeSantis said. “They never asked any questions about that. Well, now he gets in. And he had a disastrous first year as president said [sic] the worst first year president of any president since the 1800s. People compare him to Jimmy Carter. Carter was much more successful his first year than Biden has been.”
“So they know that, they know the Democrats are in for a shellacking in 2022,” DeSantis added. “So they’re trying to change the topic, and they’re trying to drive dissension among Republicans. And so my message to people is, don’t take that bait. Understand what they’re trying to do. We need to be united and say we don’t like what the Biden administration’s doing. We offer a better course in Florida. I think other Republican states are offering a better vision in their states as well. And let’s go into ‘22 with a full head of steam with everybody united on the same team.”
DeSantis’s comments come shortly after polls revealed that Biden’s economic approval ratings were worse than former President Carter’s, who notoriously oversaw the stagflation of the late 1970s.
“Carter’s economic net approval rating of -8 points in an early January 1978 CBS News/New York Times poll was the lowest around this point in a presidency before Biden’s -13 points,” CNN reported. “The economy, and particularly inflation, was listed as the nation’s top problem in a late October 1977 Gallup poll.”
CNN noted that Biden ranked far below the average economic approval rating of presidents in the past 44 years.
“In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden comes in with a 44% approval rating to 55% disapproval rating among registered voters on his economic performance. This makes for a -9 point net approval rating. The average of all polls taken in December is quite similar with Biden at -13 points on the economy,” CNN reported. “To put that in perspective, the average president at this point in the last 44 years (since we have been polling on the topic) had a net economic approval rating of +5 points. That means Biden’s is 18 points worse than the average.”
“Inflation, in particular, seems to be a big issue for Biden. Just 28% of Americans approved of the job he is doing to handle inflation in a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll,” the outlet explained. “This comes as more voters said they were concerned about inflation than any other issue in a December Fox News poll, and only 22% said the Biden’s administration efforts to get inflation and rising prices under control were helping. The plurality (47%) said they were hurting.”
