| A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that President Biden's approval rating has hit a new low: Just 41 percent of Americans approve of the job he's doing right now, less than a year into the job. To put that in perspective, that's still more support than President Donald Trump had around this time (he hovered around 38 percent), but less than other presidents. Biden started out relatively popular after successfully campaigning as the responsible adult in the room. Let's look at why he's taken such a hit. Unfortunately for him, a lot of the problems this poll identified are fairly intractable. Like: 1. Inflation: The poll found about half of the country blames Biden for rising prices on everything and that 55 percent disapprove of the job he's doing on the economy. Why that's hard for Biden to untangle: Inflation is a global problem, driven by the pandemic, that he has very little control over. 2. Americans feel Biden isn't delivering: Six in 10 Americans say in this poll that Biden isn't accomplishing much or even anything at all. Why that's hard for Biden to untangle: He'd argue he has done a lot already. He signed a Congress-passed coronavirus relief package that sent stimulus checks and child tax credits to millions of Americans. Today, he's signing an infrastructure bill into law. So, something about his messaging isn't getting through. Alternately, Americans just aren't impressed. Some Democrats fear that Biden isn't fully realizing and empathizing with the economic pain Americans are in, reports The Post's Tyler Pager. 3. The pandemic: One of Biden's strongest issues in the past is now a weak point as well. This summer, a majority of Americans approved of the job he was doing on mitigating coronavirus. Now, as the pandemic continues to halt a full return to normalcy, more people disapprove (49 percent) than approve (47 percent) of how he's handling this. Why that's hard for Biden to untangle: Getting more people vaccinated is the quickest way to ending the pandemic, say health experts. But with the notable exception of children, we've hit a wall on how many Americans are willing to do it. Biden's attempt to force American workers to get tested regularly or vaccinated is currently held up in the courts. The clock is ticking for Biden The White House tells my colleagues they feel confident the president can bounce back in popularity as the economy settles. But in less than a year, members of Congress face voters in a midterm election that is often a referendum on the sitting president. And Democrats could lose control of both chambers of Congress, perhaps by a lot. This poll also found that if the election were held today, more Americans would back a Republican for Congress than a Democrat. How Steve Bannon is trying to undercut Congress's Jan. 6 investigation  Steve Bannon turns himself into federal authorities on Monday. (PETE MAROVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) | Trump's former White House adviser could go to jail for ignoring subpoenas from Congress to testify about his potential involvement with the Jan. 6 political violence by a pro-Trump mob. And he's milking it for all it's worth. On Friday, Steve Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury. On Monday, Bannon dramatically turned himself into authorities — and live-streamed part of it. "We're taking down the Biden agenda," he proclaimed. A federal court let him go but made him surrender his passport and agree to weekly check-ins before his trial. Bannon seems like he's trying to play up being a victim. (Fact check: The committee that approved his subpoenas was bipartisan, and nine Republicans voted with Democrats in the full House of Representatives to hold him in contempt for violating those subpoenas.) He might be drawing on a very old — but successful — playbook to get public sympathy. Congress actually has the ability to arrest people itself. The last time that happened was over a century ago, and it was often problematic for Congress. The optics of a governing body jailing a private citizen in the halls of the Capitol for days or weeks on end often backfired in terms of public sentiment and Congress's overall goal of getting information. Already, Bannon's strategy is having the desired effect among Republican members of Congress. A number are trying to claim he was unfairly indicted, reports The Post's Amy Wang. (Though the facts are pretty clear here: ignoring subpoenas is a federal crime punishable by a fine or up to a year in jail, and Bannon ignored Congress's subpoenas.) "#TeamBannon," tweeted Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, could be next with legal troubles since he, too, didn't comply with a subpoena to talk to the committee. What exactly the Jan. 6 committee wants from Bannon  The Willard hotel, where Trump supporters strategized how to overturn the election. ( | Because he had the ear of Trump, Bannon is a critical link. He can help the committee understand just how intentional the efforts to overthrow Biden's win were — and how much the president knew about it. The committee believes he was at strategy meetings at the Willard Hotel, right by the White House, in the days leading up to the attack. What's interesting is that at the time, Bannon wasn't trying to hide his involvement. He had Trump strategists on his podcast to talk about their efforts to overturn election results in the states, and on Jan. 5, he said on his show that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow." | 
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