CNN’s Jake Tapper introduced the poll by saying to CNN political director David Chalian, “The first results of our instant poll of debate-watchers have just come in and David Chalian is going to join us now to break it all down. David, tell us more.”

“Yeah, Jake, and as you noted, this is a poll of debate watchers,” Chalian pointed out. “This is not a poll that represents the overall population, although in partisan breakdown it is pretty close to what the overall registered population looks like in the country.”

Later in the event, Chalian presented the results of a poll asking viewers which candidate, Trump or Harris, they trusted more on the economy. While Trump had a 16-point advantage over Harris before the debate (53%–37%), his lead had increased to 20% (55%–35%) during the discussion.