Trump and Clinton turn to battleground states in the South

Importantly, these are two-way polls between Trump and Clinton, meaning they aren’t separating out Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

In Tuesday’s Real Clear Politics poll average, Trump trailed Clinton by 3.3 percentage points. Beyond Russia, she answered questions about the ongoing controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while secretary of state, which Trump has used to cast doubt over her ability to protect classified information.

The candidates have less than three weeks to go before the first of three scheduled presidential debates – expected to be the most watched moments of what so far has been a raucous campaign.

Among those likely to turn out in the fall, both candidates have secured about the same share of their own partisans (92 per cent of Democrats back Clinton, 90 per cent of Republicans behind Trump) but independents give Trump an edge, 49 per cent say they would vote for him while just 29 per cent of independent voters back Clinton.

The New York businessman, who has struggled at times to demonstrate a command of foreign policy, will outline plans to “add substantially” to the nation’s arsenal of submarines, ships and combat troops in a Wednesday morning speech in Philadelphia, according to a briefing provided by his campaign. Whites who do not hold college degrees support Trump by an nearly 3-to-1 margin (68 percent to 24 percent) while whites who do have college degrees split 49 percent for Clinton to 36 percent for Trump and 11 percent for Johnson. Asked to square his request for military options with that criticism, Trump said simply: “They’ll probably be different generals”.

Welcome to the 2016 election where many voters are none-to-pleased with their choices and looking for options.

These early ad reservations are critical for any campaign because they can lock in a lower rate by purchasing time in advance; closer to Election Day, the same amount of ad time will cost more. The lack of enthusiasm spikes among Clinton supporters.

The difference, Cruz adviser Chris Wilson said, is that the Texas senator had a sophisticated campaign operation to identify those voters and reach them; Trump doesn’t.

That could be contributing to Trump’s slim advantage among likely voters. Overall, 38% say it should be shut down now to do so, another 22% say it should be shut down if Clinton wins the presidency, and 34% say it does too much good to be shut down completely. While these numbers could and likely will change, it’s an ominous sign for Republicans already growing nervous about the drag Trump could have on down-ballot contests. He’s gone from 37 percent support then to 41 percent among registered voters now.

Trump aides were gleeful Friday over the release of Federal Bureau of Investigation notes regarding Clinton’s controversial email practices while secretary of state.

Clinton expressed “grave” concern about reports that Russian Federation has been interfering in the USA electoral process through invasive cyber attacks on the Democratic Party and an apparent attack on voter registration systems in Arizona. The event exposed the gulf between Trump and Clinton on issues such as combating ISIS and managing the military.

The former president indicated that Trump’s campaign slogan signaled that he would make white people more culturally dominate over other races in the country.

Clinton leads Trump by more than four points in 20 states, including Washington DC, Colorado, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi plus the District of Columbia, giving her a solid base of 244 electoral college votes, just short of the 270 needed to win, the poll indicated.

Clinton faces a smaller expectations gap than President Barack Obama did heading into his debates in 2008 and 2012.

Several said they found the prospect of Trump as commander in chief worrisome. Unwilling to allow Trump to modify his immigration stances, she said his address later that night in Arizona amounted to a “doubling down on his absurd plan to send a deportation force to round up 16 million people”.

Both candidates remain largely unliked, with majorities saying they have an unfavorable view of each candidate in the new poll. Johnson claimed only about 4% in the poll, though the most recent CNN/ORC national poll has his support pegged at 7%.