Published 07:46 IST, October 2nd 2020
US Election 2020: Poll shows viewers believe Biden beat Trump in first presidential debate
As per a recent poll, half of the US presidential debate viewers believe Democratic Nominee Biden outperformed his Republican rival Trump in Cleveland.
As per a recent poll, half of the US presidential debate viewers believe Democratic Nominee Joe Biden outperformed his Republican rival Donald Trump in the first of the three scheduled debates that took place on Tuesday, September 29. According to Politico/Morning Consult poll, a majority of the debate audience blamed Trump for the chaos with constant interruptions.
The survey was conducted a day after the candidates clashed in Cleveland and Politico said that 50 percent of the watchers think Biden ‘performed the best’. While 34 percent said that Trump won, remaining 16 percent either did not know or had no opinion about the presidential debate. Moreover, 52 percent of the viewers said they did not enjoy the 90-minute televised show and 86 percent of the respondents believe the debaters were “interruptive”. In addition to that, 71 percent thought Trump disrupted Biden’s remarks, 18 percent thought otherwise.
Since the first debate was seen quickly turning chaotic, the Debate Commission later said that it was “clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.”
However, Trump has opposed the move to update the presidential debate rules for the remaining two scheduled discussions. While many were seen blaming Trump for constant interruptions leading to loss of decorum, the US President took to Twitter saying that he “easily won”.
Over 73 million people watched US presidential debate
As per reports, the Nielson Company has said that at least 73.1 million people watched the debate on television as it was broadcasted on 16 networks. The statistics showed that it was watched more than any other television event since the Super Bowl, but fell short of the 84 million who watched the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was reportedly the most-watched presidential debate ever.
However, at various instances in the Trump-Biden debate, moderator Chris Wallace was seen battling to gain control of the discussion in Cleveland owing to frequent interruptions, mostly by the Republican leader. As per The Washington Post analysis, in the 90-minute-debate, the candidates either interrupted Wallace or their opponent at least 90 times, out of which, 71 times it was Donald Trump.
Updated 07:48 IST, October 2nd 2020