Thursday, October 13, 2016
Ridgewood NJ, Hillary Clinton jumped on the release last week of an 11-year-old video in which Donald Trump makes graphic sexual comments to say it shows her Republican rival’s demeaning attitude toward women. But Trump countered that Clinton was an enabler who allowed her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to sexually assault women for years. Voters tend to agree with Trump that Bill Clinton’s behavior was worse, but not surprisingly there’s a sharp partisan difference of opinion.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters say allegations by women who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton are worse than Trump’s graphic sexual comments about women. Twenty-eight percent (28%) say Trump’s comments are worse, but nearly as many (26%) think the behavior of the two men is about the same.
Rasmussen also reports that the full results from Sunday night’s debate are in, and Donald Trump has come from behind to take the lead over Hillary Clinton.
The latest Rasmussen Reports White House Watch national telephone and online survey shows Trump with 43% support among Likely U.S. Voters to Clinton’s 41%. Yesterday, Clinton still held a four-point 43% to 39% lead over Trump, but that was down from five points on Tuesday and her biggest lead ever of seven points on Monday.
Rasmussen polls also show most Republican voters still think top GOP leaders are hurting the party with their continuing criticism of Donald Trump and are only slightly more convinced that those leaders want Trump to be president.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely Republican Voters believe it is bad for their party that top Republicans continue to criticize Trump, but that’s down a bit from 62% in June. Twenty percent (20%) feel the continuing criticism is good for the party, up from 15%, while 16% now say it has no impact. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
But while 66% of Republicans felt top party leaders didn’t want Trump to be president four months ago, just 51% feel that way now. Still, only 27% believe party leaders want a Trump presidency, compared to 20% in the previous survey. Twenty-two percent (22%) are now unsure of what their party leaders want.
Among all likely voters, only 17% believe most top Republican leaders want Trump to be elected president. Sixty-two percent (62%) disagree, while 21% are not sure. These findings are little changed from June.
Thirty-four percent (34%) of all voters say it’s good for the GOP that its top leaders continue to criticize Trump, up from 26%, while 42% say it’s bad, down from 50%. Seventeen percent (17%) say such criticism has no impact on the party.
