Donald Trump came out on top in his US presidential debate with Joe Biden, according to a snap poll conducted afterwards by broadcaster CNN.
After their Thursday night head-to-head, CNN asked viewers who had won - and 67 per cent said it was the Republican nominee; while 33 per cent backed the incumbent Democrat.
The score compounded a bad night for Mr Biden who stumbled over answers and stoked further fears that, aged 81, he is too old to be president for a second time.
At one point, Mr Biden trailed off on a line about Trump’s economic record. He finished his remarks in one exchange by making the seemingly irrelevant comment: “We finally beat Medicare.”
Mr Trump replied: “He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death, and he’s destroying Medicare.”
The Democrat, reportedly suffering with a cold, was unable to call out the former president on what were later proven to be lies over the January 6 insurrection.
CNN did not fact-check statements live and allowed Mr Trump to go unchallenged in his false claim that Democrats are in favour of allowing abortions until the point of birth.
Later on the two squabbled over who was the better golf player.
The two also offered a contrasting view of where America is on the world stage.
“Joe, our country is being destroyed,” Trump said.
“As you and I sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate. This shouldn’t be a debate. He is the worst president, he just said about me because I said it. But look, he’s the worst president in the history of our country. He’s destroyed our country.”
Mr Biden said that the US was instead the “most admired country” in the world.
“We’re the United States of America,” he said.
“There’s nothing beyond our capacity. We have the finest military in the history of the world. No one thinks we’re weak. No one wants to screw around with us, nobody.”
CNN asked 565 registered voters in the US to take part in the poll.
Before the debate in Atlanta, they voted by 55 per cent to 45 per cent that they expected Mr Trump to perform better in the debate.
