More Americans have an unfavorable opinion of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton than a favorable one, according to a new poll in which Mrs. Clinton’s favorability has also dropped 12 points since November 2013.
Twenty-six percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton, compared to 37 percent who said “not favorable,” 19 percent who were undecided, and 17 percent who said they hadn’t heard enough, according to the CBS News poll released this week.
In November 2013, a plurality — 38 percent to 33 percent — had a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton, who has been dogged in recent weeks by the controversy surrounding her exclusive use of a private email system while serving as the nation’s top diplomat.
About two-thirds said the news of the private email had no effect on their opinion of Mrs. Clinton, but 62 percent still said it was inappropriate.
Mrs. Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, said she used the private system out of convenience. Forty-nine percent said she used it mostly because it was convenient, and 38 percent said it was mostly to keep some work-related information from becoming public.
Forty-two percent said they were mostly satisfied with her explanation about why she used a personal email address, and 40 percent said they were mostly dissatisfied.
A plurality — 47 percent to 42 percent — also said Mrs. Clinton was not honest and trustworthy.
The survey of 1,023 adults was taken March 21-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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