By the numbers… here’s how the debates affected Biden’s chances of beating Trump

According to a memo sent only to campaign staff and highlighted by Politico on Wednesday, polls showed Biden had 43% support in the presidential election before the debate, but that fell to 42% after the debate.

As for Trump, the poll also showed that his approval rating was 43% before the debate and his approval rating rose by 0.2 percentage points after the debate.

The memo is part of a larger effort to allay fears within the Biden campaign and comes amid a crisis the president is experiencing following the debate, in which his performance was described as disastrous and sparked calls within the Democratic Party for him to withdraw from the race.

“We will see some polls, and we want to hear from us about what we know internally and what we expect externally,” the memo said. “Polls are only temporary conditions, and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate. It will take weeks, not days, to get a full picture of the race.”

A poll released last week showed Trump leading by 6 percentage points among registered voters nationwide and 3 percentage points among likely voters nationwide, the former president’s best results in months.

Polls have begun to show how Biden’s debate performance has led to a drop in his reelection bid.

Another CBS News poll released Wednesday showed Trump leading by 3 percentage points in swing states and 2 percentage points nationally.

A leaked internal poll conducted by BookNews on Tuesday, 72 hours after the debate, also found that Biden’s “approval rating suffered its biggest drop in nearly three years in a week.”