Respondents in a new survey say Vice President Harris soundly won Tuesday night’s debate over former President Trump — a reversal of Trump’s showing when he faced President Biden on the debate stage three months ago.
Forty-three percent of respondents in a YouGov poll conducted Wednesday morning said they thought Harris won her first — and possibly only — faceoff against Trump, compared to 28 percent who said they thought Trump won the debate. Another 30 percent said they were not sure who came out on top.
The poll echoed the findings of a CNN flash poll conducted by SSRS immediately after the debate, in which 63 percent of voters surveyed said Harris won, while 37 percent said Trump was the victor.
In the YouGov poll, 41 percent of respondents said they watched all or most of the ABC News-hosted debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, while 22 percent said they watched parts of it. About 34 percent said they didn’t tune in.
Harris went into the debate leading Trump by an average of 49 percent to 46 percent in polls, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling tracker.
Neither candidate has a firm hold on the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, with key battleground states — including Pennsylvania, where the debate took place — still in play.
A NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, released just hours before the debate, found that 30 percent of registered voters surveyed said the debate would help them decide who to vote for in November.
Harris and Trump faced off for 90 minutes, but before the debate was over, Republicans already were lamenting Trump’s blustering performance. The former president was baited into taking defensive positions over his rally crowds, his business track record and how world leaders view him.
“She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate,” one Republican House member told The Hill.
It’s a reversal from Trump’s June debate against Biden, when the former president was resoundingly declared the victor. Biden’s poor debate performance ultimately led to Biden’s abrupt exit from the presidential race, paving the way for Harris to claim the top of the Democratic ticket.
About 44 percent of the respondents in the latest YouGov poll came away from the debate thinking Harris is the most fit to be president for the next four years, while 41 percent said Trump. About 15 percent said they were unsure.
Harris scored evenly across the board by age demographic, with 45 percent of voters under 30 years old saying Harris would do the job best and 45 percent of voters 65 and older agreeing. In the middle, 43 percent of voters aged 30-44 and 44 percent aged 45-64 said they preferred Harris over Trump.
Trump polled best with the 65-plus crowd, at 48 percent — the only age group that thought he would make a better president for the next four years.
Trump defended himself after the debate, claiming he “won the debate by a lot,” despite popular opinion. He also railed against the ABC News debate moderators for fact-checking some of his false claims, while Harris went unchecked.
“It was three to one. It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be,” Trump said during a Wednesday morning phone interview with “Fox & Friends.”