Voters Who Choose Trump May Still Not Like Him, Poll Shows
A new survey shows some may vote for the lesser of two unfavorable choices.
— -- Voting for Donald Trump? That doesn’t mean you’re completely on board, according to a new analysis of data from this week’s ABC News/Washington Post poll.
With presumptive nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton garnering the lowest favorability ratings of major candidates in recent times, some voters say they are choosing to hold their noses and pull the lever in the ballot boxes.
“Unfortunately, all that’s left is really Trump or Clinton, so I gotta say Trump,” Heath Sandbulte, a 33-year-old veteran of the Iraq war from Pella, Iowa, who participated in the poll, told ABC News. “I don’t like either one of them.”
Indeed, less than half of people who support Trump or Clinton say they are “very comfortable” with the idea of their candidate as president. But the poll shows that a significant block of Trump supporters harbor a unique reluctance and hesitancy, despite their plans to back him.
The poll shows 18 percent of people who say they will vote for Trump say that the real estate mogul is not qualified to be president. One in six Trump supporters (16 percent) admit that Clinton has a better temperament to be president.
When asked specifically about the recent shooting in Orlando that killed dozens at a gay nightclub, two in 10 Trump backers (19 percent) said Clinton showed better temperament, with another 17 percent unwilling to pick a side.
“If there’s a situation that requires a little more tact, I don’t know that Trump will have it,” Sandbulte said. Clinton’s defections are in the low single digits on these questions.
A sweeping two in three Trump supporters (67 percent) say the GOP presumptive nominee’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s heritage was inappropriate, and almost half of those (30 percent) went so far as to say his comment was racist.
Only a quarter of people who say they will vote for Trump (26 percent) defended the remark as appropriate. Plus, three in 10 supporters of Trump say they disapprove of the way he’s handling questions about Trump University, while less than half –- only 44 percent –- say they approve of his responses.
Clinton backers aren’t afraid to voice qualms with their own candidate either. One in three of them say they disapprove of the way she’s handling questions about her personal e-mail use at the State Department.
Two in 10 people who say they will vote for Clinton (19 percent) say they are “anxious” about the idea of her as president -– but still far fewer than the 35 percent of Trump supporters who say they are “anxious” about Trump as president.
Trump’s comments on the campaign trail have drawn some criticism from leaders on his own side of the aisle, prompting some Republicans to withhold endorsements or avoid attending the GOP convention next month.
But a majority of Trump supporters don’t object to GOP efforts to keep Trump in line. Fifty-five percent say that other Republicans should speak out when they disagree with his views -– not avoid criticizing him.
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