A CNN instant poll of debate watchers finds that 53% of the watchers thought Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won the final presidential debate. Meanwhile, 39% said Donald Trump emerged a winner.
Keep in mind: The poll represents a sample set of debate watchers and is not representative of the country overall. In this set of debate watchers, about 32% of people were Democratic, 31% were Republicans and the rest were independent.
Arguably, the debate did not do much to change any candidate’s preferences. Before the debate, among this group, Biden had a 55% favorable rating. It inched up to 56% after the debate. President Trump had a 42% favorable rating before the debate and it dropped to 41% after the debate.
Watchers were also asked if they thought the candidates’ attacks on each other were fair. About 73% said Biden’s attacks on Trump were fair. Only 26% said they weren’t fair.
In contrast, 50% said Trump’s attacks on Biden were fair but 49% of debate watchers said they were not fair.
“To me, that suggests the race leaves this debate as it entered it, which right now, as you know, is advantage Biden,” CNN’s David Chalian reports.
More on the poll: The CNN post-debate poll was conducted by SSRS by telephone and includes interviews with 585 registered voters who watched the Oct. 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.
Watch CNN’s David Chalian break down the results: