CNN Poll Announces Biden As Winner at Final Presidential Debate

According to the CNN Instant Poll of Debate Watchers, Joe Biden did a great job in the final debate on Thursday.

Although 39 percent of the voters who watched the debate said President Donald Trump won the fight, 53 percent of the voters said Biden did, CNN reports.

According to the CNN Instant Poll of Debate Watchers, Joe Biden did a better job in the final debate on Thursday.

While 39 percent of the voters who watched the debate said President Donald Trump won the fight, 53 percent of the voters said Biden did, CNN reports.

All told, however, that the debate did not do much to move the impressions of either candidate. Biden's preferred views before the debate stood at 55% and stayed stable at 56% in post-debate interviews. Likewise, Trump's figures stayed stable, with 42 percent claiming they had a favorable opinion of the President in interviews taken prior to Thursday's debate, and 41 percent saying the same thing afterwards.

More debate watchers, however, said Trump's success raised questions about how he would handle the presidency (55%) than Biden's (41%).

Thursday's debate watchers favoured Trump over Biden to the economy (56 per cent say Trump would do better than 44 per cent say Biden would do) and equally split between the two on foreign policy (50 per cent favor Biden, 48 per cent Trump).

Biden held a wide edge as more trusted to handle the coronavirus (57% Biden to 41% Trump), climate change (67% Biden to 29% Trump) and racial inequality in the US (62% Biden to 35% Trump).

Biden was also generally seen as proposing a better strategy to fix the country's problems (54% of Biden to 42% of Trump), and the electorate divided on who appeared to be the stronger leader (49% each).

While Thursday's event was far less contentious than the first presidential debate, Biden was far more likely to be seen as specifically addressing the moderator 's questions (62 per cent said he did, 31 per cent said Trump).

Women were more likely than men to say that Biden did the better job in the debate (60% of women said Biden won, 35% Trump, while among men, 47% said Biden won, 44% said Trump did). Independents also largely felt Biden won (55% Biden to 36% Trump), as did moderates (56% Biden to 37% Trump) and White voters with college degrees (64% Biden to 29% Trump). Among those 65 and older -- a group backing Biden in greater numbers than they did Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to most polls -- the verdict was a split decision, with 46% saying Biden won, 43% Trump and 10% saying they both did equally well. Younger voters broadly saw Biden as the winner, 66%, to 27% for Trump among those under age 45.

Biden's margin over Trump in this post-debate poll is just 1 point wider than Clinton's win over Trump in a poll of viewers of the final debate in 2016. Biden's margin is the second largest in recent CNN polling following final presidential debates, behind Barack Obama's 58% to 31% margin over John McCain after the final 2008 debate.

The CNN post-debate poll was conducted by SSRS by telephone and includes interviews with 585 registered voters who watched the October 22 presidential debate. Results among debate-watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points. Respondents were originally interviewed earlier this month either by telephone or online, and indicated they planned to watch the debate and would be willing to be re-interviewed when it was over. Respondents initially reached online are members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative probability-based panel.