thirty-nine percent of viewers said donald trump won the debate. | getty by madeline conway 10/20/16 01:10 am edt a majority of viewers polled by cnn declared hillary clinton the winner of the final presidential debate on wednesday night, meaning she topped donald trump each of the three times they faced off this election cycle, according to the network<u+2019>s instant surveys. fifty-two percent of debate watchers surveyed immediately after the las vegas debate said the democratic nominee performed better than her opponent, the network reported late wednesday night. thirty-nine percent said trump won. story continued below as cnn noted on air, equivalent surveys after the first and second debates, held in new york and st. louis, also found that clinton won, in both cases by larger margins. off message by glenn thrush the network also asked debate watchers which candidate they thought spent more time attacking their opponent on stage on wednesday. a majority, 60 percent, said trump was more on the attack, while 23 percent said clinton was. (thirteen percent answered that both candidates devoted the same amount of time to attacking their opponent.) a greater proportion of surveyed viewers, 63 percent, thought clinton<u+2019>s attacks on trump were fair, compared to 55 percent who thought trump was fair to clinton. analyzing the poll on air, cnn<u+2019>s jake tapper pointed to trump frequently interrupting clinton and calling her a <u+201c>nasty woman<u+201d> as debate moments that might explain the results. which candidate won the debate, however, may not dominate the post-debate headlines on thursday. as soon as the debate concluded, journalists and commentators jumped on trump<u+2019>s refusal to commit to accepting the results of the election if he loses. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
cnn poll: 52 percent of viewers say clinton won the debate - politico
madeline conway michael grunwald