US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump now leads his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the first time since May, according to a new poll, amid fading enthusiasm for Clinton since the renewal of the FBI’s investigation into her emails.
Some 46 percent of likely voters said they would support Trump, while 45 percent said they would support Clinton, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll released Tuesday.
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson has 3 percent support, a new low; while Green Party candidate Jill Stein is at 2 percent.
Trump now leads Clinton by 8 points in the share of voters who are very enthusiastic about their choice, the poll found.
While Trump’s lead over Clinton is not a significant difference and is well within the survey’s margin of sampling error, his 1-point lead is noteworthy because he has led Clinton numerically just once before, which was by two points in late May.
The former secretary of state is losing support among voters after renewed controversy over her use of a private email server while she was head of the US State Department.
According to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, Clinton’s lead had declined from 4.6 points on Friday to 2.5 points on Monday.
FBI Director James Comey told Congress in a letter made public on Friday that his agency was looking into new emails that may be connected to Clinton.
Clinton was investigated by the FBI over her use of the private server and how she handled classified information while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. However, Comey concluded in July that there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Clinton.
The FBI has revealed very little to the public about the new emails under investigation, except that they were uncovered during an unrelated investigation into former US congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. – Press TV.
