Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner of Monday night's
debate by 62% of voters who tuned in to watch, while just 27% said they thought
Donald Trump had the better night, according to a CNN/ORC Poll of voters who
watched the debate.
Voters who watched the debate said Clinton expressed her
views more clearly than Trump and had a better understanding of the issues by a
margin of more than 2-to-1. Clinton also was seen as having done a better job
addressing concerns voters might have about her potential presidency by a 57%
to 35% margin, and as the stronger leader by a 56% to 39% margin.
The gap was smaller on which candidate appeared more
sincere and authentic, though still broke in Clinton's favor, with 53% saying
she was more sincere vs. 40% who felt Trump did better on that score. Trump
topped Clinton 56% to 33% as the debater who spent more time attacking their
opponent.
Although the survey suggested debate watchers were more
apt to describe themselves as Democrats than the overall pool of voters, even
independents who watched deemed Clinton the winner, 54% vs. 33% who thought
Trump did the best job in the debate.
And the survey suggests Clinton outperformed the
expectations of those who watched. While pre-debate interviews indicated these
watchers expected Clinton to win by a 26-point margin, that grew to 35 points
in the post-debate survey.
QUIZ: Are you more like Clinton or Trump?
About half in the poll say the debate did not have an
effect on their voting plans, 47% said it didn't make a difference, but those
who say they were moved by it tilted in Clinton's direction, 34% said the
debate made them more apt to vote for Clinton, 18% more likely to back Trump.
On the issues, voters who watched broadly say Clinton
would do a better job handling foreign policy, 62% to 35%, and most think she
would be the better candidate to handle terrorism, 54% to 43% who prefer Trump.
But on the economy, the split is much closer, with 51% saying they favor
Clinton's approach vs. 47% who prefer Trump.
Most debate watchers came away from Monday's face-off
with doubts about Trump's ability to handle the presidency. Overall, 55% say
they didn't think Trump would be able to handle the job of president, 43% said
they thought he would. Among political independents who watched the debate,
it's a near-even split, 50% say he can handle it, 49% that he can't.
CNN's Reality Check Team vets the claims in the first
presidential debate
And voters who watched were more apt to see Trump's
attacks on Clinton as unfair than they were to see her critiques that way.
About two-thirds of debate viewers, 67%, said Clinton's critiques of Trump were
fair, while just 51% said the same of Trump.
Assessments of Trump's attacks on Clinton were sharply
split by gender, with 58% of men seeing them as fair compared with 44% of women
who watched on Monday. There was almost no gender divide in perceptions of
whether Clinton's attacks were fair.
The CNN/ORC post-debate poll includes interviews with 521
registered voters who watched the September 26 debate. Results among
debate-watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage
points. Respondents were originally interviewed as part of a September 23-25
telephone survey of a random sample of Americans, and indicated they planned to
watch the debate and would be willing to be re-interviewed when it was over.
Courtesy: CNN.
