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Joe Biden's speech was NOT approved by 85% Americans but by 85% viewers and the majority was democratic: Report

Of the total number of viewers who had tuned in, CNN claimed that 54% identified themselves as Democrats, 18% as Republicans and 25% as independents

President Joe Biden's first speech to Congress on April 29 recorded a total number of 26.9 million viewers of whom 85% approved of the president's speech. However, a recent media report brings to attention that the viewers do not symbolize Americans at large and are Democrats in majority.

This report in CNN was quoted by Snopes, which called the claim of "85% of Americans Approve of Biden’s Speech" false. The CNN report was based on a poll that the network did with YouGov. In this, more than eight in 10 viewers who tuned in to the address speech said that they approved of Biden's speech. Of the total number of viewers who had tuned in, CNN claimed that 54% identified themselves as Democrats, 18% as Republican and 25% as independents.

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Meanwhile, a survey conducted by CNN using SSRS data marking President Biden's first 100 days has revealed that 53% of Americans approve of the way he is handling the job and say he has had the right priorities, and 59% say he is doing a good job keeping his campaign promises.

Interestingly, however, a report on Reuters noted that the audience for President Biden's address slumped nearly 44% below the TV viewership for former President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress in 2017. In 2017, the address drew a viewership of 47.7 million on 11 networks. 

A Twitter user reacting to the false claim of 85% Americans approving it wrote, "85% of Americans didn't approve of Biden's speech. 85% of viewers (the audience leaned Democrat) did. By comparison, 76% of the audience (that leaned Republican) approved of Trump's speech in 2017."

Another user, Kabir Khanna wrote, "To reiterate, last night's poll was of *speech watchers* not all Americans As we explained, 85% of those who said they tuned in approved of Biden's speech — % would likely be much lower among entire country, as last night's audience was mostly Democratic."

One user however, pointed out "Stats say only 54% were Dem. The rest were independent or republican. So he drew in 31% from independent and republican viewers." Another user said, "26.9M. It took me 2 seconds to Google that. I didn't watch it because we have a sane man running the country again. I read about the highlights. I did watch every single one of Trump's because I needed to know what kind of crazy we were getting."

Another user also reiterated the same and said, "Even if he had 100% approval from dems, that means he also won the approval of roughly 2/3 of the non-dems. 85% = 54% + 29%, meaning he got at least another 29% from the 46% non-dem part of the audience. In Trump's case, he would've won less than 1/2 of the non-GOP audience."