Clinton leads Trump by seven points: Poll

WASHINGTON

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears on stage at a rally a Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday, July 31, 2016. AP photo

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton got a four-point bounce in support after the Democratic National Convention and now leads her Republican rival Donald Trump by seven points in the race for the White House, says a poll released on Aug.1.

Clinton’s lead over the Republican Trump is 46 percent to 39 percent, according to the CBS News poll, as reported by AFP.

After the Republican convention, prior to the Democratic one, Trump got a two-point bump and the race was tied, CBS said.

One of Clinton’s biggest problems - Americans’ negative view of her - remains, but it has eased somewhat since the convention last week in Philadelphia, the survey suggested.

Fifty percent of registered voters have a negative opinion of Clinton compared to 36 percent who view her positively, the poll said.  

That positive number is up five points and the negative one is down six, it added.

Thirty-one percent of voters have a positive opinion of Trump, which is about the same as before the Republican convention, according to CBS. Fifty-two percent see him negatively.

The survey was carried out July 29-31 among 1,393 adults and has a margin of error of three percentage points.

Meanwhile, Clinton on July 31 sharply criticized Trump over his “absolute allegiance” to Russian policy aims, saying it raised both “national security issues” and new doubts about his temperament.

Trump responded defiantly, saying he had “no relationship” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and had never met nor spoken to him by phone, but that “if our country got along with Russia, that would be a great thing.” 

He said in an ABC interview that he was not about to disavow it if Putin praised him as a “genius” (or “colorful” as a better translation of the word).

But further fanning controversy, Trump added that as president he would at least consider acknowledging Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed in 2014 in the face of widespread international condemnation.

“The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia,” Trump said.