New York Times’ Year-End Advice for Joe Biden: Go Harder on Republicans

The New York Times released its one-year evaluation of Joe Biden’s pandemic response yesterday, and the report card is decidedly mixed: “The administration has gotten much right, but its response has been hampered by confusing messaging, a lack of focus on testing, fear of political blowback and the coronavirus’s unpredictability,” Times journalists Michael Shear, Sheryl Stolberg, Sharon LaFraniere, and Noah Weiland write.

In the abstract, most Americans would agree that the White House’s pandemic response has been riddled with problems (to put it charitably). FiveThirtyEight has been tracking Biden’s approval rating on the pandemic, which has been precipitously falling since he first took office a year ago. On this date in 2021, Biden’s pandemic response enjoyed the confidence of a happy 69 percent of Americans, with only 30.1 percent disapproving. From there, it’s all been downhill. Earlier this month, disapproval outweighed approval on the White House’s handling of Covid for the first time. As of today, 50.1 percent of Americans say they disapprove, while only 44.1 percent say they approve.

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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The New York Times released its one-year evaluation of Joe Biden’s pandemic response yesterday, and the report card is decidedly mixed: “The administration has gotten much right, but its response has been hampered by confusing messaging, a lack of focus on testing, fear of political blowback and the coronavirus’s unpredictability,” Times journalists Michael Shear, Sheryl Stolberg, Sharon LaFraniere, and Noah Weiland write.

In the abstract, most Americans would agree that the White House’s pandemic response has been riddled with problems (to put it charitably). FiveThirtyEight has been tracking Biden’s approval rating on the pandemic, which has been precipitously falling since he first took office a year ago. On this date in 2021, Biden’s pandemic response enjoyed the confidence of a happy 69 percent of Americans, with only 30.1 percent disapproving. From there, it’s all been downhill. Earlier this month, disapproval outweighed approval on the White House’s handling of Covid for the first time. As of today, 50.1 percent of Americans say they disapprove, while only 44.1 percent say they approve.