Republicans are more likely to say they will watch the presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump on Thursday, according to a new search.
The Syracuse University/Ipsos poll, released this week, found that 45 percent of Republican respondents said they were “very likely” to watch the televised debate between the party’s two possible candidates. Among Democrats, 30 percent said they would be “very likely” to watch the debate.
Overall, 61 percent of Americans said they would be “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to watch the debate, according to the poll.
Biden and Trump will face off on Thursday night in the first presidential debate of this cycle, hosted by CNN and moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. It is the first time the two have met face to face since the 2020 elections.
The former president faced criticism for his debate performance against Biden four years ago and admitted to interrupting Biden “too much” at the time, as The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman noted last week.
“He’s told people multiple times that he knows he interrupted a lot in the first debate with Biden in 2020, and having just rewatched that debate recently, it’s really impressive,” Haberman said, adding, “I mean, we’ve all talked about this. at the time, but Biden could barely say a word, and Biden was kind of smiling as it was happening.
Asked about the state of democracy in the country and which of the candidates posed a greater threat, respondents were more likely to say Trump over Biden – 49% to 34%. However, this number was largely influenced by party line.
Republicans were more likely to say Biden is a greater threat to democracy than the former president, and vice versa, according to the poll. Independent respondents also chose Trump over the incumbent as a greater threat — 52% to 32%.
Less than half of those questioned, 47 percent, also stated that the country “will survive, regardless of who is elected”. But, according to the survey, they recognized that “reputation and the economy” could suffer an impact if the wrong leaders are elected.
Broken down by party, 59% of Republicans and 38% of Democrats said the statement was closest to their opinion, the poll found.
The CNN presidential debate — which will be simulcast on other major networks, including ABC News, NBC News and CBS News, among others — will take place in Atlanta at 9 p.m. EDT.
Another poll, released earlier this week by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, found that 64% of respondents said they would be paying attention to the debate for at least part of it.
The Syracuse University/Ipsos poll was conducted May 17-19 with a sample of 1,017 adults and a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
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