Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump will face off for their first televised debate on Monday, September 26.
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The poll also found that 73 percent of Democratic voters believe Trump will misstate more facts than Clinton.
Voters are also slightly more likely to trust Trump than Clinton on handling gun laws, 39 per cent to 35 per cent.
Four-way races which list both presidential and vice-presidential candidates show Trump topping Clinton 50 – 44 percent. “The good news for him is the electorate narrowly agrees with him that America has lost ground and wants to see a change in direction”, McInturff adds.
“With national polling reflecting a surge of momentum for Donald Trump, the pressure is squarely on Hillary Clinton to live up to her reputation as a talented debater at a time when millions of undecided voters will be glued to their screens”, RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer said in a statement.
In a head-to-head matchup without those third-party candidates, Clinton’s advantage expands to seven points, 48 percent to 41 percent.
A CBS News battleground tracker poll shows the Democratic candidate has a 2-point lead over Trump in Florida.
Black voters and minorities heavily support Hillary Clinton, with 69 percent swinging in her favor.
The poll shows immigration issues are particularly important to Trump’s supporters.
Fifty-two per cent of respondents indicated they had an unfavourable view of Clinton, while 61 per cent had a negative view of Trump.
“We’re going to see the debate prep making sure that she’s not going to be able to pull him somehow off the message”, said Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican who is one of Trump’s most loyal backers in Congress. Collins cited other states in play – Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia – that could tip the balance to Trump.
Voters said their biggest concern with the candidates was Trump’s comments and language about women, immigrants, and Muslims, with 54 percent citing that.
In a portion of the video conference not being circulated, Clinton allegedly told her union backers to “stage an intervention” for anyone they know who is voting for Trump, according to The Washington Post. Most recently, it has focused on questions about Mrs. Clinton’s health and Mr. Trump retracting his long-held doubts about Mr. Obama’s citizenship. But Trump has a commanding 45 percent to 27 percent lead this week among voters not affiliated with either major political party.
“He’s going to have to try and contain himself and at the same time be sharp on the questions and issues and also figure out emotionally when to push the right buttons to affect Hillary Clinton”, Taylor said.
Clinton has a big edge over Trump on who would do a better job handling the USA image overseas, 47 percent to 27 percent. In the last poll, 13 percent expressed no preference while 15 percent did so in this poll.
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The poll was conducted September 16-19 for NBC News/Wall Street Journal by Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research Associates, and Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
