Joe Biden bested Donald Trump on Thursday night in a category sure to grab the president’s attention: television ratings.
Figures released Friday from Nielsen show that Biden’s town hall on ABC averaged 13.9 million viewers, while Trump’s averaged 10.6 million on NBC. But even when viewership figures are added for MSNBC and CNBC, cable networks owned by NBC that also carried Trump’s town hall, the president’s total viewership was 13 million, lower than Biden’s.
Trump has long touted his ability to generate impressive television ratings as a sign of his popularity with the American public. Following his first presidential debate with Biden, for instance, Trump asserted that he had, in fact, won the war for eyeballs.