Biden's approval continues to slide, down 10 points with independents in new poll

• President Joe Biden hit a new low in his approval rating with the NPR/Marist poll.
• In line with recent polls, his favorability continues to slide - particularly among independents.
• Since July, he is down 10 percentage points with independent voters in the NPR/Marist survey.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

President Joe Biden's approval rating hit a new low in the latest NPR/Marist poll, down 10 percentage points with independent voters.

Despite months of healthy favorability ratings over 50% - buoyed by even stronger marks on his handling of the pandemic - Biden's presidency has largely reverted to modern polarization levels. His overall approval fell to 43% in the continuous survey from NPR, Marist College and PBS NewsHour.

The 10-point dip with independents and overall 6-point drop is compared to the last run of the poll from July.

Biden's handling of the military and civilian withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a contributing factor, as has souring public confidence in his handling of the coronavirus. Afghanistan in particular has shown Biden to be more vulnerable to dips in approval than his predecessor.

An NBC poll from earlier this month had Biden down 16 percentage points in his pandemic response from April, where it hit a high of 68%.

Read more: Things are 'not working well' for the Trump-picked pandemic-relief watchdog

Biden defended his decisions on the Afghanistan withdrawal in a speech on Tuesday, but several polls have found his approval falling ever since the Taliban overran Kabul.

In the NPR/Marist survey, the person whom the largest group of respondents blamed was President George W. Bush (36%) for the Taliban victory after 20 years of US involvement in the war.

The poll surveyed 1,241 adults from Aug. 25 through Aug. 31, including both landline and cellphones. Questions were asked in both English and Spanish.

The margin of error for the overall sample was plus or minus 3.9%.