As US President Joe Biden marks one year in office on Thursday, how are Americans feeling about his performance?
Though he scored early successes by passing pandemic relief and infrastructure bills, Covid-19 has continued to dominate domestic affairs, while his foreign policy record has been blighted by a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. A growing battle over voting rights is set to shape this year's midterms, and Mr Biden will need to muster all his political strength to lead his party through it. But only 42% of Americans currently approve of the president's performance, compared to more than half when he took office. Here's what five Americans from across the political spectrum told us about their commander-in-chief. He sees Mr Biden's first year as one of "ups and downs". "The biggest problem that continues to face us is the pandemic and unfortunately he's missed the mark. The main goal has been to ramp up vaccine access and I don't think that's proven enough given the record highs in hospitalisations and daily cases now," says Matthews. He thinks Afghanistan has been Mr Biden's biggest failure - despite agreeing with the decision to get out. "After 20 years, it was clear that American intervention in Afghanistan was not fruitful by any means. But it was a pretty sloppy withdrawal and we all saw that." "Very few Afghans were relocated to the US" in comparison to the number reported to have helped American forces and this was a "shame", says Matthew. To make the rest of his term a success, Mr Biden must concentrate on expanding the razor-thin Democratic majority in Congress "so that we're a little less stuck on the whims of one or two senators when advancing key pieces of legislation", says Matthew. Read more...
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