Donald Trump has closed the gap between himself and Hillary Clinton, and now trails the presumed Democratic nominee by just 3 points nationwide.
According to a new McClatchy-Marist poll released Wednesday, Clinton leads Trump 42 percent-39 percent. That’s a big improvement for Trump from April, when Clinton led 50 percent-41 percent.
The poll was conducted July 5-9. On July 5, FBI Director James Comey announced he was not recommending charges be brought against Clinton and her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State. He did, however, say that Clinton and her team were “extremely careless” with classified information. A day later, Attorney General Loretta Lynch formally announced there would be no charges in the case.
“The good news for Hillary Clinton is that despite a very rough week, she still has a narrow edge,” Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, who conducted the survey, said. “The bad news is these issues don’t seem to be going away.”
This is the first time support for Clinton has dropped below 50 percent in national polls over the last year.
In a four way race, Clinton does better and beats Trump 40 percent-35 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson gets 10 percent support and the Green Party’s Jill Stein has 5 percent.
The survey of 1,249 U.S. adults was conducted by telephone July 5-9. Of those, 1,053 were registered voters, and the poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
