MU Law Poll: Most support leaving Afghanistan, 63% disagree with US handling of withdrawal

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- In a new Marquette Law School Poll released Thursday, Sept. 23, we've learned that, while most people supported leaving Afghanistan, most people disagree with President Biden's handling of the U.S. Withdrawal.

President Joe Biden’s handling of the withdrawal receives a 36% approval rating and a 63% disapproval rating among adults nationwide. Among the same set of respondents, however, 74% support the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan with 26% opposed to ending the U.S. presence.

Further, 25% say the war was worth it, while 74% say it was not worth it. As for the fate of Afghan refugees, 58% support admitting as many refugees to the United States as possible, while 42% are opposed to this.

"I think you see a real mixed picture. One that's hurting Biden considerably because of his handling of the situation, but I think on those other two items, you see a pretty clear, almost 3 to 1 agreement that getting out was the right thing to do," said Charles Franklin, director of Marquette Law Poll. 

The pandemic is the president's strong suit, according to the poll's director; And this also goes for his COVID mandates concerning schools.
This month, 69% of Americans approve of requiring teachers and students to wear masks in schools, and 64% support requiring students at public universities to be vaccinated.

For Democrats who think COVID is a serious problem, 93% support Biden's response. For Democrats who don't think it's serious, 80% are supportive.

This drops significantly among the GOP.

"Republicans are about evenly split on whether they think the COVID epidemic is a serious problem of not a serious problem. And for Republicans who think the epidemic is serious 30% approve of the way Biden's handling it, of those who think it's not serious, only 6% approve," said Franklin. "So that's an example of seeing a very big partisan split."

The poll shows that 67% of Independents who believe COVID is serious approve of Biden's response versus just 35% who do not think the pandemic is serious.

The president's overall approval rating has dropped this month. The poll shows just nine percent of Republicans and 43% of independents approve of President Biden. Among Democrats he has an 89% approval rating, which dropped from 96% just two months ago, some of which may relate to how he handled the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The survey was conducted Sept. 7 through Sept. 16, and 1,411 adults nationwide were interviewed, with a margin of error of +/-3.4 percentage points.