Biden approval rating nears record low after classified documents discovery: Poll

US President Joe Biden’s approval rating has plummeted as more and more Americans show dissatisfaction with him, according to a new poll.

The new Reuters-Ipsos poll, released on Thursday, showed only 40 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s performance in office.

Biden has been under fire over the handling of classified documents that have been discovered in a former office and at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

The three-day poll concluded on Sunday, which was the final day of news about classified document discoveries.

Biden’s lowest approval rating was 36 percent in May and June.

The poll was conducted days after the first batch of classified documents were found in November in an office Biden used in Washington between his time as vice president and the 2020 presidential election.

The White House confirmed Saturday that additional documents were found at the garage of Biden's private home in Wilmington, Delaware. In a statement, Biden's personal counsel Robert Bauer said a total of six pages of documents with classification markings were discovered at the president’s Wilmington residence. The White House had previously said that only one page was found there.

The disclosure of the latest discovery comes days after the White House confirmed media reports that Biden’s personal lawyers had found an initial batch of classified documents on Nov. 2 in an office he had used for his work at a Washington think tank.

The files were handed over to the National Archives, which notified the Justice Department of the discovery on Nov. 4. By mid-November, Attorney General Merrick Garland had tapped John Lausch, a Trump-appointed US Attorney in Chicago, to oversee an assessment of the classified materials.

The White House has been hardly forthcoming about the way it has handled the classified documents. It has declined to answer questions beyond limited statements issued over the past week, and has had to update its narrative multiple times as more information has come to light.

Republicans have accused the Biden administration of deliberately keeping the initial discovery of sensitive files secret for two months and until the public learned about it from news reports.

Republicans -- fresh out of their disappointing midterm election performance and their chaotic effort to elect a new speaker-- have already vowed to use their new House majority to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents and how federal agencies responded to it.

Most Democrats support the probe into Biden's classified documents

According to a Yahoo News-YouGov poll this week, a majority of Democrats support a congressional investigation into the classified documents found at Biden’s home and private office

US House Republicans and the Department of Justice have already announced probes into the records.

Fifty-two percent of Democrats and 64 percent of respondents, in general, said they would approve a congressional investigation.

Some 67 percent of independents and 84 percent of Republicans supported support lawmakers’ inquiry into the documents.

Several Democratic lawmakers have also said they support the Justice Department’s decision.

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