Yamiche Alcindor Attempts to Explain Away Biden’s Low Poll Numbers as ‘Real Life’ Getting in the Way of His ‘Agenda’

This morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Host Chuck Todd held a round table discussion which included Yamiche Alcindor who he asked about Biden’s low poll numbers, which she suggested were due to “real life” getting in the way of his “agenda.”

Todd began by sharing a graphic that showed Biden’s poll numbers and said, “43, 44, 46, we had him at 49 and it was clear two weeks ago that he was still going down, that he hadn’t hit bottom, perhaps this is bottom here.”

Then Todd asked Alcindor, “Does the White House think they have an Afghanistan problem or a COVID problem?”

“Well I’ll say this, these numbers underscore a real fact, which is that presidents try to create agendas, but that real life events and circumstances actually define their agendas,” Alcindor insisted.

Alcindor continued, “Here you had a president who took such fierce criticism over his withdrawal from Afghanistan plus the idea that he declared independence of the virus or something close to it, talking about the idea of a return to normalcy on July 4th, only to then have Americans say we have to put our masks back on, we have to see children have surging rates of COVID.”

“So this is the problem that the president is faced with is this idea that he has been talking about solving these problems, he ran on this idea of being a clear headed, experienced president and the White House is saying we’re trying to do this, we understand our number one job is COVID,” Alcindor explained.

Alcindor then pivoted and suggested that “The American people are looking and saying, ‘Ok all of this experience means what exactly for my lived experience?’ Add of course the economics of this, right, we have to remember that the economy is the thing that is driving this.”

“Our original sin of this pandemic was polarization and lies and that is leading people not to get the vaccine, that’s also leading people to die of the virus and take dewormers and now the president and White House officials tell me that it really is about explaining to people that science evolves, explaining to people that challenges are part of the job, and then these poll numbers are really challenging for him,” Alcindor concluded, appearing to attempt to also put much of the onus former President Trump and his supporters.

WATCH: President Biden’s approval numbers hit new low after Covid spike, Afghanistan withdrawal and economic troubles.@Yamiche: “These numbers underscore a real fact … events and circumstances actually define their agendas.” pic.twitter.com/oNnroetWoG

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 5, 2021

Two other potential reasons that Alcindor didn’t mention were highlighted in a recent Washington Examiner piece:

The border crisis

Biden’s handling of the southern border has been a problem the entire time he has been in office, after he reversed a number of Trump-era immigration policies. The migrant surge in the middle of a pandemic, frequently including large numbers of minors, has continued unabated. The federal government reported more than 210,000 border encounters in July, the last month for which data is available.

In some polls, Biden’s job approval ratings on immigration and border security are stuck in the 30s. The issue has ensnared Vice President Kamala Harris, the likeliest Democratic standard-bearer if Biden opts against seeking a second term. She long delayed a trip to the border, arguing that her real task was to address the root causes of the problem.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has described the situation as “unsustainable” and predicted “we’re going to lose” if conditions don’t change. Federal authorities have been overwhelmed processing the migrants, some of whom are infected with COVID-19.

Rising crime

Another issue that turned the Democrats’ 1960s Great Society dreams into 1970s national malaise was out-of-control violent crime in major cities. That has also come roaring back as major urban areas grapple with a spike in homicides, threatening to make law-and-order a campaign wedge issue for the first time in decades.

Biden has tried to distance the Democrats from causes like “defund the police,” which have contributed to low law enforcement morale in cities reeling from violence and hurt the president’s party in swing districts last year. But vocal, up-and-coming young Democrats have taken up the idea of transferring resources away from the police for social welfare spending, leading some voters to wonder whether Biden speaks for the party as much as left-wing New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

High percentages of voters have disapproved of Biden’s handling of crime and gun violence for months. An ABC News poll in early July found that just 38% backed Biden’s handling of crime, while 48% disapproved.