Biden vs. Trump: Who won presidential debate? Latest CNN poll picks winner
A majority of registered voters gave last night’s debate win to former President Donald Trump, according to a flash poll by CNN.
Sixty-seven percent of debate watchers thought Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, turned in a better performance than his Democratic challenger, President Joe Biden. Thirty-three percent said Biden did better than Trump. Prior to the debate, 55% of the same voters thought Trump would do better than Biden.
READ MORE: Presidential debate fact check: What Trump and Biden got wrong
Biden’s performance only earned him a win from 69% of Democratic debate watchers compared to 95% of Republicans who thought Trump did a better job.
Biden’s favorability rating also took a hit after the debate following a performance in which the 81-year-old Biden seemed confused at times and appeared to struggle with his words. Prior to the debate, 37% of those polled had a favorable opinion of Biden. That dropped to 31% after the debate. Sixty percent had an unfavorable opinion of Biden pre-debate and that fell to 58% post-event though those with “no opinion” of the president grew from 3% to 12%.
In contrast, Trump saw a post-debate bump. Before the debate, 40% said they had a favorable view of Trump, a percentage that grew to 43% after last night’s event. Fifty-seven percent had an unfavorable opinion of Trump pre-debate; 50% had an unfavorable opinion afterward.
Eight-five of Republican debate watchers credited Trump with doing more than Biden to address concerns regarding his ability to handle the presidency compared to 53% of Democrats who said the same for Biden. Twenty-seven percent of debate watchers said neither candidate did much to address concerns about their abilities.
The CNN flash poll was conducted via text message with 565 registered U.S. voters with a margin of error of 5.5 percentage points.