I bet Team Joe wasn’t expecting this in New Jersey of all places.

But maybe they should have. Americans don’t like seeing other Americans abandoned behind enemy lines, it turns out. Including in purple districts.

President Biden’s approval numbers have taken a hit in seven Democrat-controlled swing districts, according to a new poll commissioned by conservative advocacy group American Action Network released on Tuesday…

The survey — conducted by Remington Research Group — showed the president underwater by an average of 7 percentage points on the economy and 9 percent on foreign policy in the areas polled, which include California’s 10th Congressional District, Florida’s 7th Congressional District, Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, Michigan’s 8th and 11th Congressional Districts, Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District and Washington’s 8th Congressional District…

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) — who represents an R+4 district on the Cook Partisan Voting Index scale — and Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa) —who holds an R+3 seat — are shown to be hit the hardest, with the poll showing them at a 9 percent disadvantage when matched up against a generic GOP candidate, with Biden receiving the lowest marks in their districts out of the seven surveyed.

Some types of heckling are easy to ignore. “Democrats suck” or “Trump 2024” would have been quickly shaken off. “My best friend died in 2011 in Afghanistan, for what?” hits harder. Watch, then read on.

"It's sad that America has come to this."

BIDEN takes a barrage of heckles from people behind a fence waving a Trump flag as he tours flood damage in the Lost Valley neighborhood of Manville, N.J. pic.twitter.com/dEN8oyu4bM

— Zach Purser Brown (@zachjourno) September 7, 2021

We know that there are Americans left behind in Afghanistan, of course. What we don’t know at the moment is how the Taliban is handling them. It seems unlikely that they’d resort to harming U.S. citizens at a moment when they’re trying to squeeze money and recognition out of the White House, knowing how that would require a military response from Biden. But one citizen who’s trapped in Afghanistan told Voice of America a few days ago that the Taliban is “hunting Americans” now. “I think to myself, ‘Am I going to make it home? Am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here? What’s going to happen?'” she said. “Apparently they’re [the Taliban] going door-to-door … trying to see if anybody has a blue passport.”

She allowed herself to appear on camera, which seems odd. But maybe she’s calculating that the more visible she is, the more pressure there’ll be on the State Department to get her out and the more pressure there’ll be on the Taliban not to harm her. That’s a high-risk gamble.

I’ll leave you with this scene, which played out in the same spot as the heckling. My new conspiracy theory is that the Biden team had this kid stashed in a car, ready to deploy for a heartwarming moment in case the president got a chilly reception.

Ignoring the hecklers, a small boy brings a letter to Biden and receives a big hug from the President for his trouble. pic.twitter.com/DuFmg0GYXr

— Zach Purser Brown (@zachjourno) September 7, 2021