The negativity of the first presidential debate got a similar reaction from American voters, according to a new Axios|SurveyMonkey poll conducted after the acrimonious showdown in Cleveland.
Fully 55% of all voters were “disappointed” by the debate, and another 24% were downright “angry.” The negative views are broadly shared by supporters of both major party candidates, but voters backing President Trump were far more apt than former vice president Joe Biden’s to be “excited” (19% vs. 5%) or “relieved” (14% vs. 7%).
At the same time, the president fares worse relative to expectations. Three times as many voters indicated Trump performed worse than expected compared with those who shared that view of Biden (39% vs. 13%).
Overall, two-thirds of survey respondents said they tuned into all or some of Tuesday’s debate.
In general, Democrats were largely satisfied with Biden’s performance at the debate: 38% say he did better than expected, 56% about as expected, and just 5% say he did worse than expected.
View the full results by partisanship below.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
