Americans Largely Approve Of Biden’s SOTU Address, But Not Enthusiastically

Americans largely approved of President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, but they were not enthusiastic about the speech, according to recent polling.

When respondents to a CNN poll were asked, “What was your overall reaction to Biden’s speech tonight?” 71% said they approved of the speech, with only 41% having a “very positive” reaction and 29% having a “somewhat positive” reaction.

A CBS/YouGov poll found similar results when responding to the question, “What was your overall reaction to Biden’s speech tonight?” While 78% of respondents approved of Biden’s speech, 55% of respondents strongly approved and 23% somewhat approved.

The CBS/YouGov poll also found that Biden’s speech made respondents largely feel optimistic (67%), proud (53%), and safe (32%). Only 20% of respondents felt pessimistic, another 13% angry, and 9% of respondents reported they felt scared after Biden’s address.

The news comes after Biden received his lowest approval rating since the start of his presidency. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that as of March 1, Biden has an overall approval rating of 43% compared to 57% at the beginning of February.

Additional polling from Reuters found that Biden’s handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine rose to 43%, which is significantly higher than the recorded 34% approval on the issue last week. However, 47% of people still disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war.

When asked, “From what you heard tonight, do you think Joe Biden’s policies will or will not deal with Russia effectively?” 71% of respondents to the CBS/YouGov poll answered that Biden’s policies will deal with Russia effectively.

In the same poll, 65% of respondents felt that Biden’s speech had just the right approach concerning Russia, while 30% felt it was not tough enough and 5% thought he was too tough.

When responding to the question “Did the speech make you feel the U.S. is likely to get involved in a war in Europe?” 34% of respondents thought so, while 66% of respondents got the impression from Biden’s speech that the U.S. would stay out of the war in Europe.