NEW YORK – Donald Trump has fallen further behind Hillary Clinton and now trails her by eight points among likely voters, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, with one in five Republicans saying his vulgar comments about groping women disqualify him from the presidency.
The national tracking poll was launched after Sunday night’s second presidential debate, where Trump was pressed to explain his comments in a 2005 videotape about grabbing women’s genitalia. He described the remarks, which first surfaced on Friday, as “locker room” banter and apologised to Americans.
The poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had increased her lead over Trump, the Republican nominee, to 8 percentage points on Monday from 5 points last week.
When asked to pick between the two major-party candidates, 45 per cent of likely voters said they supported Clinton while 37 per cent supported Trump. Another 18 per cent said they would not support either candidate.
Among those who said they watched at least portions of the debate, 53 per cent said Clinton won while 32 per cent said Trump won. The results fell along partisan lines, however: 82 per cent of Democrats felt Clinton won, while 68 per cent of Republicans felt that Trump won.
Among likely voters who watched the debate, 48 per cent said they supported Clinton while 38 per cent supported Trump.
In the 2005 Access Hollywood video Trump boasted about making unwanted sexual advances toward women.
Some 61 per cent of those polled said that “lots of men” occasionally engage in similar conversations, and 46 per cent, a plurality, said it was unfair to judge someone on conversations “that they did not intend for anyone else to hear”.
Most of those polled said they believe Trump is a sexist, but they were split on whether his comments disqualify him from being president. Some 42 per cent of American adults, including 19 per cent of registered Republicans, said Trump’s comments disqualified him, while 43 per cent said they did not.
Among Republicans, 58 per cent said they want Trump to remain atop their party’s ticket, and 68 per cent said the Republican leadership should stand by him.
The video doesn’t appear to have worsened Trump’s standing among women, who mostly had a low opinion of him already, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling over the past 12 months.
When asked to pick between the two candidates, about 44 per cent of women chose Clinton while 29 per cent selected Trump – roughly the same proportion as measured in polls conducted before the weekend. (Reuters)
