Who won the debates in 2020? Joe Biden or Donald Trump
Biden and Trump will get their first chance in four years to go head-to-head on Thursday. How did the debate encounters pan out for them last time round?
President Joe Biden and his predecessor former President Donald Trump will have their first face-to-face sparring match of the 2024 elections on Thursday 27 June. The first general election presidential debate will be hosted by CNN at their Atlanta studio headquarters.
This is the first time in modern American history that the same two presidential candidates will be facing off against each other in a debate and both have served in the top job. The last time round in 2020, Trump was trying to hold onto the White House but ended up losing to Biden. That year the two candidates met in two presidential debates, another that had been scheduled was canceled when Trump contracted covid-19. Here’s how those two encounters panned out for Biden and Trump.
Who won the debates in 2020? Joe Biden or Donald Trump
Biden and Trump sparred for the first time in 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio on 29 September. Jake Tapper, who will be moderating Thursday’s match-up, called that debate “a hot mess inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.”
The event was plagued by Trump incessantly interrupting not only his opponent Biden but also moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News who was unable to keep the unruly Trump under control. The ploy to dominate the debate didn’t pan out though with even one of his debate coaches, former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, saying, “I think the president overplayed his hand tonight.”
The American public in polling conducted afterwards showed that Trump’s favorability rating dropped and unfavourability rose. Meanwhile, the opposite occurred for Biden. Also, according to FiveThirtyEight nearly 60% felt that Biden had a good performance at the first 2020 debate while just over two-thirds said that Trump’s was poor.
Respondents also approved more of the answers on policy that Biden gave at the debate with almost 57% saying they were good. That was compared with a slightly higher percentage considering Trump’s answers on policy were poor.
The second and final debate was held on 22 October in Nashville, Tennessee and it was a more typical presidential debate with the candidates using more respectful tones with each other, even when throwing punches. Whether it was of his own accord, or he was following advice or the threat of being muted Trump dialed it down.
While positive reviews of Trump’s performance jumped to nearly 52% from less than a third a month earlier, he still was far short of the almost 69% good performance rating that Biden received. Again, respondents felt that Biden did better at answering policy questions earning marks of 60% good to 38% poor compared to Trump’s 44% good to 54% poor marks.