Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump has narrowed to just 3 points, with both candidates polling slightly below 50 percent after FBI Director James Comey's announcement that he would not recommend criminal charges against her in connection with her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, according to a new
NBC News/Survey Monkey poll.
In the weekly tracking poll, conducted online from July 4-10 and released early Tuesday:
- 82 percent agreed Clinton's use of the server was inappropriate;
- 15 percent said the use was appropriate;
- 68 percent of Clinton's voters called her use inappropriate;
- 98 percent of Trump's voters said the use was inappropriate;
- 29 percent of Clinton's voters said the use was appropriate;
- 2 percent of Trump's voters said it was appropriate.
Meanwhile, most Americans disagreed with Comey's recommendation, but that opinion split sharply by the candidate's supporters:
- 56 percent disagreed with Comey's recommendation;
- 93 percent of Trump's supporters disagreed;
- 78 percent of Clinton's supporters agreed;
- 20 percent of Clinton's supporters disagreed.
The email controversy also seems to have had an impact on Clinton's honest and trustworthy ratings, but not her favorability ratings:
- 66 percent overall say she is not honest and trustworthy;
- One-third of her supporters do not think she is honest;
- 60 percent disapprove of her, virtually unchanged since May;
- 62 percent disapprove of Trump, the same as in May.
The poll was conducted among a national sample of 7,869 adults who said they are registered voters, and were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.