Who won the debate? This says CNN poll

Biden to Trump: Why don't you shut up, man?

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(CNN) -

Six out of 10 observers of the debate said former Vice President Joe Biden performed better on Tuesday and only 28% say it was President Donald Trump who did, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

In interviews with the same voters conducted prior to the debate, 56% said they expected Biden to do a better job, while 43% expected that of Trump.

• The first presidential debate turned into chaos as Trump derailed the night with insults and interruptions

The result is roughly the same as a 2016 poll result after the first Trump-Hillary Clinton debate.

In that poll, 62% thought Clinton won the debate, while 27% said Trump won.

About two-thirds said Biden's responses were more truthful than Trump's (65% from Biden to 29% from Trump), and his attacks on the president were more often seen as fair.

Overall, 69% rated Biden's attacks on Trump as fair, while only 32% said Trump's attacks were fair.

The poll is designed to be representative of registered voters who watched Tuesday's debate, it does not represent the views of all Americans.

Partisanship

Voters who watched the debate were more partisan than Americans as a whole - 36% identified as independent or nonpartisan compared to about 40% in the general public.

And the audience for the debate was more Democratic than a typical adult poll, in which 39% identify as Democrats and 25% as Republicans.

Beyond general praise for his performance, voters who watched the debate said largely that they trusted the former vice president rather than the current president on the main issues discussed in the debate, including racial inequality (66% trust Biden more , 29% in Trump), healthcare (66% Biden, 32% Trump), the coronavirus outbreak (64% Biden, 34% Trump) and Supreme Court nominations (54% Biden, 43% Trump).

Economy

However, when it comes to the economy, voters who watched the debate were divided, with 50% favoring Biden and 48% favoring Trump.

Overall, 63% of those who watched the debate said that Biden had the best plan to solve the country's problems (30% said Trump had it) and that he appeared to be the strongest leader (55% of Biden vs. 43% Trump).

• See the highlights

The debate did not appear to lead to dramatic changes among observant voters regarding their voting preferences or their overall impressions of the two candidates.

Most observers (57%) said Tuesday's debate did not affect their election for president, while the minority who said it was affected were more likely to say they were more likely to vote for Biden (32%) than by Trump (11%).

However, Biden was considered to have better addressed concerns about his candidacy (59% Biden, 37% Trump).

The favorable opinions of both candidates were largely stable (62% had a favorable opinion of Biden, only 35% had a favorable opinion of Trump) compared to pre-debate results among the same people (60% had a favorable opinion of Trump). a favorable opinion of Biden, 37% had a favorable opinion of Trump).

How was the survey done?

CNN's post-debate poll was conducted by SSRS over the phone and includes interviews with 568 registered voters who watched the September 29 debate.

Results among debate watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6.3 percentage points.

Respondents were originally interviewed September 22-27, either by phone or online, and indicated that they planned to watch the debate and would be willing to be interviewed again when it ended.

Respondents initially contacted online are members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative probability-based panel.

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