NEW POLL: CNN Survey Shows Trump-Biden Matchup ‘Unchanged’ After Debate — Harris Closes In On Trump

The matchup between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is “unchanged” since the debate that touched off panic, according to a new CNN poll.

The big story to emerge from CNN’s debate Thursday night was the panic after deadly early stumbles from Biden set the tone for debate coverage — though his performance improved as the debate went on. Calls for Biden to drop out have dominated post-debate coverage.

But the president’s allies point to post-debate events , and to the claim that the race hasn’t changed since the debate.

A new CNN poll shows that the race is, indeed, unchanged — but also that Vice President Kamala Harris is within the maergin of error against Trump:

In a matchup between the presumptive major-party nominees, voters nationwide favor former President Donald Trump over Biden by 6 points, 49% to 43%, identical to the results of CNN’s national poll on the presidential race in April, and consistent with the lead Trump has held in CNN polling back to last fall.

There are some signs in the poll that each candidate has consolidated support among their own partisans in recent months, a period that has seen both Trump’s conviction on felony charges in a New York court and the first general election debate of the contest, though independents appear increasingly reluctant to support either man.

The poll also finds Vice President Kamala Harris within striking distance of Trump in a hypothetical matchup: 47% of registered voters support Trump, 45% Harris, a result within the margin of error that suggests there is no clear leader under such a scenario. Harris’ slightly stronger showing against Trump rests at least in part on broader support from women (50% of female voters back Harris over Trump vs. 44% for Biden against Trump) and independents (43% Harris vs. 34% Biden).

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics , anchor Dana Bash and political director David Chalian discussed the results.

DAVID CHALIAN: Take a look overall at the state of the race. In our brand new poll, 49% Donald Trump, 43% Joe Biden. This is a six point lead, Dana, and this is unchanged, unchanged since our last poll in April. In fact, it’s been a remarkably consistent race, with Joe Biden trailing Donald Trump just outside the margin of error for quite some time. If you look back in our trend here, you see it was identical in April, 4943. You see, nothing has really changed since last August by last fall. This race is kind of locked into place.

DANA BASH: That’s remarkable to look at that even just from April to now. Exactly the same.

DAVID CHALIAN: Identical. And the Biden campaign will say to folks, see, the debate didn’t change the state of the race. Of course, when you’re six points down, you kind of needed the debate to change the state of the race.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics .