Polls have shown a majority of Americans welcoming Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, with many also believing Covid was now behind them.
The US president was widely applauded by Congress and members of his administration for calling out Russian aggression on Tuesday night, as well as for championing his own administrations action on Covid.
The speech, which was his first State of the Union address as US president, scored highly among voters – with as many as 78 per cent telling CBS News they approved of Mr Biden.
As many as 71 per cent of viewers also told CNN the Democrat had left them feeling “positive” despite the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and domestic troubles, including inflation.
While the figures from CNN were several points lower than Mr Biden’s address to Congress last year, the numbers were still significant and appeared to show optimism among Americans.
A poll for CBS News showed most Americans feeling optimistic about the future, with more than half telling pollsters they felt “proud” and that the two-year Coronavirus pandemic was behind them.
In fact, as many as 78 per cent approved of the speech and only 22 per cent disapproved. The polls were not weighted to look like the general US population, and according to CBS News a far higher number of Democrats tuned in over Republicans. Those numbers could be reversed on Trump-friendly Fox News, which also covered the speech.
Other polls indicated that a majority of Americans felt optimistic about the country after Mr Biden’s speech as well. A poll from ABC 6 in Philadelphia that solicited responses from viewers online showed that more than 50 per cent of viewers came away from the speech with optimistic feelings, that is, until late in the evening when Mr Biden’s political opponents swarmed the results to show their opposition to the president several hours after it ended.
Polls that were posted to Twitter met the same fate as obsessed Republicans hunted for any survey they could skew in their favour.
Mr Biden tried to deliver a vision of national unity for Americans amid high inflation and Covid, which he acknowledged had “fatigued” and “exhausted” the country. His remarks came as Democratic-held municipalities around the county are winding back public health guidelines and declaring a return to some kind of normalcy.
The president said Americans could look forward to “more normal routines” following the pandemic, while touting his own administration’s success. The address was also the first time many lawmakers had sat in the chamber without a mask or higher Covid protocols. Some, however, still declined to attend due to a requirement that lawmakers present a negative test result.
As for Russia, Mr Biden said Vladimir Putin “thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people”.
A majority of Americans told pollsters the speech left them trusting Mr Biden’s response to the crisis, and more than six in 10 said that the president sufficiently addressed Mr Putin and the Russian invasion on Tuesday, when Mr Biden vowed that the Russian leader “has no idea what’s coming” and announced a closure of US airspace to Russian flights.
Two areas that Americans wanted to see Mr Biden address more were surges in violent crime and inflation, issues that Republicans in particular have honed in on for criticism of the White House. Just over half of speech watchers said Mr Biden could have addressed those two topics more.
Despite the qualms over inflation, nearly two-thirds are optimistic that Mr Biden’s economic plan will put the country on the patch of recovery.
