President Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden took the stage on Tuesday for their first presidential debate, but the entire event was a disappointment, according to viewers.
The debate was expected to attract a wide viewership, since the 2016 election’s debates between Trump and then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton set a record for the largest audience to ever tune into a presidential debate. But Trump and Biden managed to attract only 73 million viewers, according to Variety, which is 13 million fewer than the first Trump-Clinton debate four years ago.
Those who did tune in for Tuesday’s debate didn’t stick around long, according to a CBS News poll. The vast majority of respondents told the outlet that the debate’s tone was too negative and that they felt annoyed watching it. Few voters found the debate informative. Indeed, only 17% of respondents said they learned something from the back-and-forth. And although a third of respondents said that they felt entertained, the majority walked away discontent.
Unfortunately, this is not a rare thing. For the past several years, people have admitted that they feel discouraged by politics, the overwhelming news cycle, and the rhetorical conflict that never seems to find a resolution. This feeling is not just exclusive to one party, either. Both Democrats and Republicans are upset with the current state of things: Democrats are upset because Trump is president, and Republicans are upset because of the way Trump has been treated as president.
The one thing that both sides can agree on is that American politics is a mess — perhaps the messiest it’s ever been. Nowhere was that more apparent than in Tuesday’s debate. There was very little substance, according to viewers; indeed, there was very little debate at all. It would seem “annoying” is a pretty mild way of putting it.
