Clinton leads Trump by 12 points as GOP unity appears more fragile

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clinton-trumpHillary Clinton has a double-digit lead over Donald Trump in a new national poll released Tuesday.

The survey, from Bloomberg Politics, finds Clinton leading Trump by 12 points (49 percent to 37 percent) among likely voters nationally. Nine percent of likely voters chose Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

Many likely voters also had strong views about whether they could support the other candidate in the race. Of those surveyed overall, 55 percent said they could never support Trump; 43 percent said the same of Clinton.

And in a smaller sample of likely voters taken Monday night, after the mass shooting in Orlando, voters said by a small margin–45 percent to 41 percent–that they’d choose Trump when asked which candidate they’d have more confidence in if a similar attack took place next year.

Overall, voters see Trump as better on combating terrorism: they chose him over Clinton on the issue 50 percent to 45 percent. Still, 61 percent did not agree with Trump when he said President Obama “hasn’t taken forceful enough action” to combat terrorism in the U.S.

As for the candidates’ proposals for how to prevent future attacks, neither gets a majority. Sixty-nine percent of likely voters disagree that there should be more surveillance of American Muslims; meanwhile, 50 percent said the U.S. shouldn’t ban the sale of all semi-automatic weapons.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they are bothered “a lot” by Trump’s inflammatory comments about women, and 55 percent said the same about his comments on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage. For Clinton, the thing most voters are bothered by are her paid speeches on Wall Street: 50 percent said they are bothered “a lot” by those speeches.

The poll surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults and 750 likely voters from June 10-13. The margin of error for the full sample of adults is +/- 3.1 points, and for the likely voters it’s +/- 3.6 points.

Republican party unity appears more fragile

Since wrapping up the GOP nomination, Trump has done little to ease the concerns of skeptical Republicans. He has ignored calls to change his tone, refocus his message on policy and ignore personal slights. Instead, he has doubled down on a controversial proposal to ban on Muslims entering the U.S., attacked the heritage of a federal judge and publicly insulted party leaders.

In turn, Republican office holders are keeping their distance – even some who, like House Speaker Paul Ryan, have endorsed him as the party’s standard-bearer for the November election.

Intraparty fractures deepened Monday after Trump doubled down on his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. His response to the deadly massacre of 49 people at a LGBT night club in Orlando has been panned or ignored in by Republicans.

Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he disagreed with Trump’s proposal, saying, “I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s best interest.”

The Republican National Convention, which is getting behind Trump, ignored his Orlando speech, too.

CBS News/ YL

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One response to “Clinton leads Trump by 12 points as GOP unity appears more fragile”

  1. Rascal Avatar

    I am thinking we are pretty screwed, whatever the out come.

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