How Televised Debates Affect American Voters

(Baonghean.vn) - About half of American voters will rely on the televised debates to decide between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released today (September 26).

50% of American voters probably chose Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump after the televised debates. Photo: Reuters

The debate will take place on the evening of September 26 (local time, or the morning of September 27 Vietnam time) at Hofstra University, a suburb of New York City.

This is the first of three debates between the two rivals and is expected to attract more than 100 million viewers, surpassing the number of viewers for the 2015 Super Bowl.

About 50% of American voters believe that live televised debates will help them decide whether to support Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, while 10% of voters are currently undecided.

Meanwhile, about 39% said that the debates did not play a decisive role, while 11% were unclear whether the debates could influence their decisions.

American voters hope the two candidates will have a civilized debate after months of attacking and criticizing each other during the election campaign. While Mr. Trump called for Mrs. Clinton to be arrested for using a private email server while she was US Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Trump of racism and temperamental unfitness to be President.

61% of voters said they would not be interested if Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump continued to attack each other like that in a live televised debate.

Another indicator that American voters want a clear and straightforward debate is that 72% of respondents want the debate moderator to be able to clarify when the two candidates make arguments that are not true to reality.

“The debates helped people watching, including myself, to see what was true and what wasn’t. It’s too simple to just quote numbers and let people accept it in election campaigns,” said Harvey Leven, a 63-year-old voter.

Clinton is currently leading in most polls and has an advantage in key states like Ohio and North Carolina. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Clinton leading Trump by 4 percentage points, respectively.

Diep Khanh

(According to Reuters)