In a presidential race in which even optimistic voters have struggled to see the glass as half full, a new poll shows when it comes to perceived honesty, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are running on (nearly) empty.
A CBS/New York Times poll released Thursday found 67 percent of voters think Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is dishonest and not trustworthy. Meanwhile, 62 percent of voters polled said the same of Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
That number rose 5 percent for Clinton since pollsters asked the same question last month, before FBI Director James Comey determined that her decision to use a private email server while she was secretary of state was “extremely careless,” but did not merit criminal charges.
On Monday, a separate ABC/Washington Post poll found that 56 percent of respondents disagreed with Comey’s decision.
It’s admittedly not an exact measure of honesty or trustworthiness, but PolitiFact, a fact-checking website, found that 51 percent of Clinton’s statements are “true” or “mostly true.”
PolitiFact’s same analysis for Trump found just 11 percent of his statements to be “true” or “mostly true.” The vast majority of them ― 58 percent ― are split between “false” (39 percent) and the even more incendiary “pants on fire” category (19 percent).
The CBS/New York Times poll isn’t all bad news for Clinton, however. Fifty percent of voters say she’s prepared to be president, compared to just 33 percent who say the same about Trump.
According to CBS/New York Times, the candidates are statistically tied overall, with 40 percent of registered voters telling pollsters they support Clinton, and an equal percentage backing Trump.
The Huffington Post Pollster general election chart, which aggregates all publicly available polls, shows Clinton with a slight edge over Trump, at 43 percent support to his 40 percent.
The CBS/New York Times poll surveyed 1,600 adults nationally by telephone July 8-12, using a combination of both cell phone and landline numbers. The poll has a 3 percent margin of error.
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