Election 2016: Democrat Hillary Clinton Opens 12-Point Lead On Republican Donald Trump; Trump Seen As Unqualified

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton widened her lead over Donald Trump in the latest ABC/Washington Post poll released Sunday while an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicated Trump has emerged from the last few weeks virtually unscathed.

The ABC/Post poll indicates Clinton has a 51 percent to 39 percent lead over Trump while the NBC/Journal poll shrinks that lead to Clinton 46 percent, Trump 41 percent.

The ABC/Post poll, conducted by Langer Research Associates, indicated two-thirds of Americans view Trump as biased against women, minorities and Muslims, and 64 percent say Trump is unqualified to be president.

Americans apparently were incensed about Trump’s remarks regarding Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling the San Diego federal court suit against Trump University. Sixty-eight percent of those polled said his remarks that Curiel couldn’t fairly decide the case because of his Mexican heritage were racist, 85 percent said they were inappropriate and 59 percent said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of questions about the case. That compares to 56 percent who disapproved of Clinton’s handling of her email.

By a 20-point margin, 56 percent to 36 percent, respondents said Trump stands against their beliefs.

Who did a better job of responding to the Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub massacre? Forty-six percent said Clinton while 28 percent said Trump.

Trump also is losing support from registered Republicans, going from 85 percent last month to just 77 percent now, the ABC/Post poll indicated.

And despite dissatisfaction with both Clinton and Trump, only 18 percent of those polled said they were seriously considering a third-party candidate.

The polls come in a week where Trump fired his campaign manager and was criticized for weak fundraising and lack of campaign organization.

“Donald Trump has had the worst month one can imagine, but Clinton’s negatives are so high the net impact on the ballot is almost invisible,” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducted the NBC/Journal survey with Democratic pollster Fred Yang.

The ABC/Post poll indicated if Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party standard-bearer Jill Stein are added to the mix, Clinton polls 47 percent to 37 percent to Trump, 7 percent to Johnson and 3 percent to Stein. The NBC/Journal poll, however, cut Clinton’s lead to 39 percent while Trump lost just 3 percentage points when Johnson and Stein were added to the mix. Johnson said he would be on the ballot in all 50 states, while Stein expected to be on the ballot in 37 states.

The NBC/Journal poll indicated Clinton has managed to secure the support of 78 percent of those who backed Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Despite overtures from Trump, only 10 percent of Sanders supporters said they would vote for the billionaire.

The NBC/Journal poll also indicated Clinton has a 17-point lead over Trump among women, while Trump has a 10-point lead among men. Along racial lines, just 22 percent of Hispanics support Trump. Overall, Clinton leads Trump 73 percent to 16 percent among nonwhite voters, and Trump leads 49 percent to 37 percent among whites.

The ABC/Post poll queried 1,001 adults, including 836 registered voters, June 20-23 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points overall and 4 percent for registered voters. The NBC/Journal poll of 1,000 registered voters June 19-23 had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.