President Barack Obama’s approval rating dropped a shocking 8 percentage points over the last month -- one of sharpest, fastest plunges in his presidency,
according to a new CNN poll released early Monday morning.
For the first time in Obama's time in office, more than half of the public doesn’t feel that the president is honest and trustworthy, the CNN/ORC International poll showed.
Specifically, Obama's approval rating stands at 45 percent, down from 53 percent in mid-May, CNN reported. A shocking 54 percent of respondents told pollsters they disapprove of how Obama is handling his job. That was up 9 points in just a month.
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It's the first time in
CNN polling since November 2011 that a majority of Americans have had a negative view of the president, CNN reported.
The severe drop in Obama's approval rating was fueled by a sharp 17-point drop among Americans under 30, according to the poll. That's particularly discouraging heading into 2014 because Democrats have felt they have a lock on the youth vote after the 2012 elections.
"The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
The president also dropped 10 points among independent voters, from 47 percent last month to 37 percent. Obama's disapproval among independents jumped 12 points to 61 percent. Again, more bad news for Democrats because those independents are especially important in mid-term elections in which older, more conservative Americans predominate.
The network pointed to several major scandals as evidence for the drop.
"The White House has been under siege over telephone and Internet surveillance, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, its handling of the terror attack on the U.S. consular post in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department's collecting journalists' phone records as part of the government's investigation into leaks of classified information," CNN reported.
"It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama's standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well," Holland told the network.
The poll also found:
- A slight majority disapproves of the actions of the man who leaked the NSA documents. A majority of respondents also believe Edward Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong, should be brought back to the United States and prosecuted.
- Six in 10 disapprove of how Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens. That's higher than the 52 percent who disapproved of George W. Bush on the same issue in 2006, when government surveillance was also in the headlines.
- Obama's approval rating on terrorism, although still above 50 percent, has taken a 13-point hit since mid-May.
- The president's approval rating on domestic issues like the economy, immigration and the deficit dropped by 2 to 4 points, within the poll's sampling error.
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