Less than 40 percent of U.S. voters think President Joe Biden is in charge of his administration, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday.
The survey comes two days after a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Biden’s approval numbers dipped by seven percentage points and hit its lowest level so far after the Taliban took Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Rasmussen Reports asked 1,000 likely voters, ''How confident are you that Joe Biden is physically and mentally up to the job of being President of the United States?''
Fifty-two percent said ''not very'' (11 percent) or ''not at all'' (41 percent) confident. Just 46 percent said they were ''very'' (32 percent) or ''somewhat'' (14 percent) confident.
When asked, ''Is Joe Biden really doing the job of president, or are others making decisions for him behind the scenes?'' 39 percent said, ''Joe Biden is really doing the job of president,'' while 51 percent said, ''others are making decisions for him.''
The Reuters poll said Biden’s approval dropped as the Taliban entered Kabul, wiping away two decades of U.S. military presence that cost nearly 1 trillion taxpayer dollars and thousands of American lives.
Many conservatives wonder who is actually in charge in the White House, questioning Biden’s age and mental capacity to serve. A New York Times piece published in July suggested that Ron Klain, Biden’s White House chief of staff, was the man steering the administration.
Republicans, the piece said, have taken to referring to Klain as the ''prime minister.''
The Rasmussen survey of 1,000 U.S. likely voters was conducted on August 18-19, 2021, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.