Trump wins debate poll by nearly 2-1 margin

Former President Trump won Thursday night’s debate over President Biden by a 2-1 margin, according to a newly released survey.

Forty-three percent of respondents in a YouGov poll conducted Friday morning said they thought Trump won the debate, compared to 22 percent who said they thought Biden won. Another 35 percent were unsure.

The poll echoed the findings of a separate poll from CNN immediately after the debate, when 67 percent said Trump won — more than double the 33 percent who said Biden won. In contrast, during the 2020 debate, when Trump repeatedly interrupted and talked over Biden and the moderator, 60 percent believed Biden had won.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents in the YouGov poll said they watched most or all of the debate while 22 percent watched parts and 38 percent said they did not watch the event.

Biden and Trump faced off for 90 minutes on Thursday. Within the first 30 minutes of the debate in Atlanta, Democrats began to panic over Biden’s lackluster performance. The president stumbled over his words and had a raspy voice, and he was often seen staring off camera as Trump spoke.

Before the debate, YouGov and CBS ran a poll showing that 67 percent of Democrats wanted Biden to take a “forceful” tone during the debate, while 70 percent of Republicans hoped that Trump would take a more “polite” approach.

In the postdebate YouGov poll, only 13 percent of independents said they thought Biden won, while 40 percent said they thought Trump did. Republicans were also far more likely to think Trump won (77 percent) than Democrats were to think Biden won (47 percent).

The results were closer when the poll asked respondents who they believed was more fit to be president, though on that question as well Trump maintained a double-digit edge: 44 percent said Trump, compared to 35 percent who said Biden while 21 percent were unsure.

Of the respondents who identified as independents, 41 percent said Trump was more fit, while 26 percent said Biden was more fit and 33 percent were not sure.

The YouGov survey of 3,115 adults had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.