Politico Debate outlook - from the Hill
TONIGHT AT 9 P.M., JOE BIDEN and President DONALD TRUMP will take the stage in Cleveland for the first presidential debate -- a 90-minute, commercial-free affair moderated by Fox News’ CHRIS WALLACE, 35 DAYS before Election Day.
WE HAVE A FEW FRESH DATA POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND as you start to think about tonight -- these are from our new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll:
-- 86% of voters say their minds are made up about who they will vote for. Just 14% say they are persuadable.
-- DAVID SIDERS and STEVEN SHEPARD in their piece this morning: “Nine out of 10 of those who plan to vote for Donald Trump think he’ll be the better debater. Roughly the same number of Joe Biden voters think he’ll get the best of the president.”
-- 44% say they expect BIDEN to perform better tonight, and 41% say they expect TRUMP to perform better. 15% don’t know.
-- 41% of those polled say it is “very accurate” to say “Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in thousands of preventable deaths in the United States.” Another 13% say it’s somewhat accurate.
-- 40% say it’s very or somewhat accurate to say BIDEN wants to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
-- WALLACE, the moderator, has a 33% favorable rating and 15% unfavorable rating. 52% either have never heard of him or have no opinion. WALLACE is the best-known debate moderator -- 58% have never heard of C-SPAN’s STEVE SCULLY and 59% have not heard of NBC’s KRISTEN WELKER
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