Donald Trump has closed the gap to within 3 points of Hillary Clinton in a national poll released Wednesday, as Mrs. Clinton continues to deal with fallout from the controversy over her private email server.
Mrs. Clinton held a 3-point, 42 percent to 39 percent, lead over Mr. Trump in the McClatchy-Marist poll — down from a 9-point, 50 percent to 41 percent, lead for Mrs. Clinton in a survey released in April.
In a four-way contest, Mrs. Clinton was at 40 percent, Mr. Trump was at 35 percent, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson was at 10 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein was at 5 percent.
The poll was conducted from July 5-9. FBI Director James B. Comey announced on July 5 that he was not recommending charges against Mrs. Clinton over the private email server she used as secretary of state, while saying she and her aides were “extremely careless” with the set-up.
A day later, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced there would be no charges in the case. On July 7, Mr. Comey testified about the matter on Capitol Hill and questioned whether Mrs. Clinton was sophisticated enough to understand classification markings.
“The good news for Hillary Clinton is that despite a very rough week, she still has a narrow edge,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey. “The bad news is these issues don’t seem to be going away.”
Sixty-four percent said they have an unfavorable view of Mr. Trump, compared to 60 percent for Mrs. Clinton.
The survey also showed both candidates have some work to do in winning over fans of their primary opponents.
Mrs. Clinton won the support of 57 percent of voters who supported Sen. Bernard Sanders, who endorsed her on Tuesday. Mr. Trump received support from 60 percent of Republicans who had supported other candidates.
And 49 percent of Clinton voters said they were motivated by support for her, compared to 48 percent who were driven more by opposition to Mr. Trump. For young voters, 28 percent said they support her because they like her, while 70 percent said they support her to oppose Mr. Trump.
On the other side, 41 percent of Trump voters said they were drawn to him, while 56 percent said they support him as an anti-Clinton vote.
Mrs. Clinton has about a 4-point lead over Mr. Trump in the latest Real Clear Politics average, which included the McClatchy poll.
But a set of battleground state polls released on Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed Mr. Trump gain on Mrs. Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania in the past month, as she lost ground on the issues of honesty and trustworthiness in both of those states, as well as in Ohio.
Mr. Trump also held a 2-point lead over Mrs. Clinton in a Monmouth University poll on Iowa released on Tuesday, with three-quarters of those surveyed saying Mrs. Clinton either acted criminally (43 percent) or showed poor judgment (32 percent) in her use of the private email server as secretary of state.
Mrs. Clinton had a 4-point lead over Mr. Trump in Nevada in a Monmouth poll released Monday. But 71 percent said they believe Mrs. Clinton either acted criminally (44 percent) or showed poor judgment (27 percent) with her private email server.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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