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(CNN) – Joe Biden did a better job in the final debate Thursday, according to a CNN instant poll of debate watchers. Overall, 53% of voters who watched the debate said Biden won the showdown, while 39% said President Donald Trump won.
Viewers said once again that Biden’s criticism of Trump was largely fair (73% said it was fair, 26% unfair). And they were divided on whether Trump’s attacks on Biden were fair (50% said yes, 49% no).
That’s a more positive outcome for Trump. In an instant CNN poll after the first presidential debate, only 28% said they thought the president had won the debate. And 67% called his criticisms of Biden unfair.
In all, however, the debate did little to shake impressions of either candidate. Biden’s favorable views before the debate were 55% and held steady at 56% in post-debate interviews. Similarly, Trump’s figures were stable. Forty-two percent said they had a favorable opinion of the president in interviews conducted before Thursday’s debate, and 41% said the same afterward.
However, more observers of the debate said that Trump’s performance raised concerns about how he would handle the presidency than Biden’s performance (55% vs. 41%).
Observers of Thursday’s debate preferred Trump over Biden on economics. 56% say they think Trump would handle it better versus 44% who say Biden would. And they were split almost evenly between the two on foreign policy (50% prefer Biden, 48% Trump).
Biden had a broad advantage as being more trustworthy in handling coronavirus (57% Biden vs. 41% Trump), climate change (67% Biden vs. 29% Trump) and racial inequality in the US (62% Biden vs. 35%). Trump).
Biden was also seen as offering a better plan to solve the country’s problems (54% Biden vs. 42% Trump). And voters were divided on who appeared to be the strongest leader (49% each).
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Although Thursday’s event was much less contentious than the first presidential debate, Biden was much more likely to be seen as responding directly to the moderator’s questions (62% said yes, 31% said Trump).
Women were more likely than men to say that Biden did a better job of debating. 60% of women said that Biden won, 35% that Trump. While among men, 47% said Biden won, 44% said Trump won. Independents also largely felt that Biden won (55% Biden vs. 36% Trump), as did moderates (56% Biden vs. 37% Trump) and white voters with college degrees (64% Biden vs. 29% Trump). .
Among those 65 and older, a group that backs Biden in greater numbers than Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to most polls, the verdict was a split decision: 46% said Biden won, 43% said that Trump won, and 10% said they both did equally well. Younger voters overall saw Biden as the winner, 66%, to 27% for Trump, among those under 45.
Biden’s margin over Trump in this post-debate poll is only 1 point wider than Clinton’s victory over Trump in a 2016 final debate viewer poll. Biden’s margin is the second largest in recent polls by CNN after the final presidential debates, behind Barack Obama’s 58% to 31% margin on John McCain after the final 2008 debate.
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CNN’s post-debate poll was conducted by SSRS over the phone 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 phone or online, and indicated that they planned to watch the debate and would be willing to be interviewed again when it was over. Respondents initially contacted online are members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative probability-based panel.
