White House Report Card: Biden Breaks Fundraising and Illegal Immigration Records
President Joe Biden, supported by former Presidents Obama and Clinton, sees a resurgence in his bid for reelection with a fundraising record of $26 million. However, a high number of illegal immigrants poses a significant challenge. The week includes controversies over rebuilding Baltimore’s Key Bridge and emissions regulations. Opinion on Biden’s performance varies, with contrasting grades from Jed Babbin and John Zogby.
This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden inching back into contention for reelection, flush with a record $26 million fundraising haul made possible with the help of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
But another number continues to provide a very high hurdle to boosting his low approval rating. And that’s the record number of illegal immigrants he has welcomed into the country. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are now a record 51 million immigrants in the country, and a record 13 million are here illegally.
He also stirred anger among his foes by promising to pay for the estimated $1 billion rebuild of Baltimore’s Key Bridge, which collapsed when a foreign-owned container ship crashed into it Tuesday, and issued new and potentially unattainable emissions regulations on big rigs.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin gave the week an “F,” while highlighting the president’s latest snub of Israel and lack of recognition of murdered New York Police Department officer Jonathan Diller while in the city raising that $26 million.
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded the week a “B,” in large part because the president has scratched back to about even in election polls.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
Some weeks are easier to grade than others, and this is one of them. We need only to compare President Joe Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s Thursday. Biden went to a glitzy fundraiser in New York accompanied by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Trump went to the wake of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller who was gunned down in the line of duty. The comparison doesn’t benefit Old Joe.
Upon waking up to the Baltimore disaster Tuesday, Biden immediately and reflexively promised to pay the whole cost of repairing the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It’s not the burden of the feds to pay. It’s the obligation of the ship’s insurers and others. Biden just can’t resist spending our tax dollars on everything that comes along.
There are a few other things to note this week. Biden’s United Nations ambassador failed to veto a Security Council resolution that demanded an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza without connecting that obligation to a release of hostages. This caused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call back the team he was sending to get clearance from Biden to go after Hamas’s last holdouts in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. He has since changed his mind. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force General Charles “CQ” Brown admitted that the U.S. was beginning to withhold military aid from Israel. Biden will do anything to appease his Muslim voters.
To top it off, pro-Hamas hecklers interrupted Biden’s campaign speech in North Carolina on Wednesday. They demanded more healthcare in Gaza, and Biden agreed with them. Obamacare in the Gaza Strip?
While all that was going on, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded that unless Biden sends at least $20 billion a year to Latin America and grants immunity to illegal immigrants for work permits, that he would ensure the flow of illegal immigrants continued.
That flow has already reached an enormous level and shows no sign of slowing or stopping. Eight or nine million illegal immigrants have come in since Biden was inaugurated. Nobody really knows how many. Now, the Border Patrol says that over one million illegal immigrants have come in since FY2024 began six months ago. That will amount to more than two million in one fiscal year. And that doesn’t count the “gotaways” who avoid the Border Patrol and the “walk-aways” who the Border Patrol doesn’t bother to arrest before they’re released.
John Zogby
Grade: B
Even though President Joe Biden’s job approval remains stuck at around 40%, and even lower on key issues, this was still a good week for him.
First, he continued to close the gap in the horse race against former President Donald Trump. In three polls this week Trump’s average lead is only .4 points. Biden is gaining among independents.
Second, the Biden campaign has a huge fundraising margin over the Trump campaign, which widened with Wednesday’s star-studded gala at Radio City Music Hall with Obama and Clinton.
Third, Democrats actually picked a seat in a special election for the Alabama House. The key issues were abortion rights and in vitro fertilization.
The president, however, is still not making any gains among younger and nonwhite voters and those seeking an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. The big anti-Israel protest outside the Thursday fundraiser gave powerful testimony to that. But despite those problems, Biden is still in the game.
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Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Their firm polls for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
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