President Joe Biden attended Sunday Mass with his grandchildren Finnegan, Hunter and Natalie Biden at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, as his approval ratings saw a nosedive to 38 percent.
Biden, who is the second U.S. president after John F. Kennedy to practice the Catholic faith, regularly attends Mass with his family. He was seen out on Sunday with Finnegan, 21, a recent University of Pennsylvania graduate and daughter of Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle, and siblings Natalie, 17, and Hunter II, 15, both children of the late Beau Biden and his wife Hallie.
Finnegan beamed as she embraced Hunter while they left church, while the other members of the first family appeared contemplative as they walked through the cemetery at Saint Joseph.
The outing came days after a poll that showed 53 percent of voters saying they disapprove of how Biden has handled the presidency, according to a poll from Quinnipiac University.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki pinned at least part of the blame on Biden's plummeting approval ratings on the pandemic and the 20 percent of unvaccinated Americans.
President Joe Biden was seen with his grandchildren Finnegan (second-from-left), 21, and Natalie Biden, 17, on Sunday, attending Mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware
Biden was seen in public following a Friday poll that revealed his approval ratings had dropped to 38 percent. He regularly attends church with his family and was out with Finnegan on Natalie on Sunday
Biden and his grandchildren walked through the cemetery at Saint Joseph on Sunday morning
Just over half of voters said they disapprove of how Biden has handled the presidency, according to a poll from Quinnipiac University on Friday
'So what do you make of these really terrible polls? Are they that he's doing something wrong. Is it just the communication? Or is it that he's doing unpopular things that just have to be done?' a reporter asked at the press briefing.
Psaki replied: 'Well, look, I would say that this is a really tough time in our country. We're still battling Covid and a lot of people thought we'd be through it - including us.
'Because of the rise of the Delta variant, because of the fact that even though it was a vaccine that was approved under a Republican administration, even though we now have full FDA approval and even though it's widely available across the country we still have a quarter of the country - less than that, 20 percent of the country - who've decided not to get vaccinated.
'No question that's having an impact,' Psaki said, adding that, 'as the President has said, the buck stops with him' before signing off.
Three weeks ago, the same poll found that 42 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved.
Quinnipiac poll from October 1-4 shows the President's most recent approval ratings
in the latest poll, 32 percent of Independents approve of Biden while 60 percent disapprove. Four percent of Republicans approve - 94 percent disapprove. Still, 80 percent of Democrats approve of the president's job overall and 10 percent disapprove.
Biden received his lowest marks on immigration, where only 25 percent approve and 67 percent disapprove, and also received low marks on his 'first love,' foreign policy, where only 34 percent approved and 58 percent disapproved.
Of his job as commander-in-chief, 37 percent approved, 58 percent disapproved, according to the poll.
Roughly three in 10 Americans (28 percent) agreed with Biden's decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, while 50 percent think the US should have withdrawn some troops but not all troops and 15 percent think the US should not have withdrawn any troops from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Congress remains at an impasse at the sweeping spend plans that will define his presidency and the threat of debt default loom.
At the same time Biden received the worst jobs report of his presidency. Earlier today he urged Americans to look at the bigger picture, pushing his infrastructure bill and trillion-dollar package of social programs.
'If you take a look at the trend itself, on average 600,000 new jobs created every month since I took office,' Biden said.
Biden, who is the second U.S. president after John F. Kennedy to practice the Catholic faith, regularly attends Mass with his family. He and his grandchildren were seen leaving Sunday Mass at Saint Joseph
Finnegan Biden (left) embraced her cousin Hunter Biden II, 15, as Natalie followed and their grandfather trailed behind
Bets buds! Finnegan threw her arms around Hunter II as Biden stood beside them and Natalie stayed close behind
Hunter II (left), Finnegan, Joe Biden and Natalie appeared contemplative as they exited church
'In total, job creation in the first eight months of my administration is nearly 5million jobs. Now that's progress,' he added.
But just 194,000 jobs were added to the payroll in September, falling far short of the 500,000 that were expected, and offering one of the most dismal outlooks from a US jobs report all year.
Monthly job growth so far in 2021 has averaged 561,000. Supply chain bottlenecks and Covid-19 contributed to the unimpressive numbers.
But Biden argued the country is making 'consistent steady progress'.
'If you take a step back, look at what's happening, we're actually making real progress. Maybe doesn't seem fast enough - I'd like to see it faster,' he said, adding that 'we're making consistent steady progress'.
He also argued that the declining unemployment rate meant the country was moving forward as it grappled with its economic recovery from the Covid pandemic.
'Unemployment rate down 4.8 percent, a significant improvement from when I took office and the sign that our recovery is moving forward,' he said.
He did not respond to questions from reporters after he made his remarks.
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