Viewers say Hillary Clinton won the first presidential debate against Donald Trump, and it wasn’t even close, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday.
Fifty-three percent of adults said the Democratic nominee won Monday’s event, compared to just 18 percent touting a Trump victory.
ABC said only one of its prior debate polls has shown a more uneven matchup dating back to 1976: Mitt Romney crushing President Obama in the first 2012 debate (69 to 18 percent).
The debate, which attracted a record-breaking 80.9 million viewers according to Nielsen, was largely hailed as a win for Clinton by pundits and media alike, who panned Trump’s performance as one suffering from a lack of preparedness and his over-eagerness to take Clinton’s bait on nonpolicy issues like Trump’s past disparaging statements about women.
Meanwhile Trump and his surrogates have said he won the debate, and claimed the candidate had issues with his microphone, which the debate commission later confirmed.
Among registered voters, Trump also trailed Clinton by a large margin: 51 to 21 percent. Clinton won several divisions, even among whites, who make up the backbone of Trump’s support base, which he lost 44 to 26 percent.
The poll of 630 adults, conducted Sept. 28-30 by landline and cellphone, has a margin of error of 5 percentage points among all respondents and 5.5 points among registered voters.
The next debate between Trump and Clinton is slated for Oct. 9 in St. Louis, Mo.
