Biden Opens Up 13-Point Lead over Trump in New National Poll

The poll shows Biden garnering 54 percent of the vote to Trump’s 41 percent, with 53 percent of likely voters surveyed saying that the Democratic nominee performed better than Trump in the debate on Tuesday night, while only 29 percent said the president had the better performance. 

That debate quickly devolved into a raucous and chaotic event defined by frequent interruptions and hectoring by Trump, who has since sought to declare victory in the showdown.

But the CNBC-Change Research poll found that 45 percent of likely voters believe that Trump underperformed expectations at the debate, while only 11 percent said that Biden performed worse than expected. 

The poll also underscores the dismal public perceptions of the debate. More than three-quarters of respondents — 77 percent — said it did not make them feel proud to be an American.

Still, the debate doesn’t appear to have had a significant impact on the state of the presidential race. Only 2 percent of respondents said that it changed how they will vote, while 98 percent said it would not.

In response to Tuesday night, the Commission on Presidential Debates has said that it is looking into possible adjustments to the rules and format of the remaining debates on October 15 and October 22. There have also been calls to give moderators the ability to cut off a candidate's microphone if they violate the debate rules.

The CNBC-Change Research poll surveyed 925 likely voters nationally from September 29 to 30 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.22 percentage points. Findings on the presidential debate are based on responses from 796 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.47 percentage points.