WASHINGTON — A President's Day survey ranking the nation's worst presidents took center stage during the 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and his predecessor former President Donald Trump.
During the CNN debate on Thursday, the two presidential hopefuls exchanged jabs, often calling each other "the worst president" in American history.
"The idea that we're talking about worst presidents," Biden quipped during the debate. "Look it up, go online, 159 or 158, I don't know the exact number, presidential historians...voted who's the worst president in American history."
"That is a fact," Biden added before saying. "He can argue they're wrong but that's what they voted."
While Biden's numbers on the historians involved weren't exactly right, he was close.
The survey in question, a project from professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University, included 154 usable responses, from 525 respondents invited to participate.
Out of all the U.S. presidents, Trump held the last place while Biden ranked No. 14 on the list.
According to the survey, the presidents are ranked on overall presidential greatness. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington lead the list of best U.S. presidents.
The debate on Thursday, featuring deeply personal attacks by both men, came at a pivotal juncture in their unpopular presidential rematch and a critical moment to make their cases before a national television audience.
Biden’s uneven performance risked crystallizing voter concerns that at age 81 he is too old to serve as president, while the 78-year-old Trump’s rhetoric offered a perhaps unwelcome reminder of the bombast he launched daily during his tumultuous four years in office.