New Poll Shows Trump With 2-Point Lead Over Clinton
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The presidential race appears to be tightening as a new national poll shows Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton.
CBS2's Dick Brennan reported a CNN poll showed Trump topping Clinton 45 to 43 percent among likely voters. Libertarian Gary Johnson came in at 7 percent and the Green Party's Jill Stein at 2 percent.
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"Their big poll came out today that Trump is winning. It's good psychology, you know? It's good psychology," the Republican presidential nominee said at a town hall in Virginia Beach on Tuesday.
The poll is quite a turnaround from the seven-point lead Clinton had after the conventions.
Also troubling for Clinton is that she trails Trump in the category of honest and trustworthiness – 50 to 35 percent.
David Birdsell of Baruch College told CBS2's Tony Aiello that a spate of negative news took a toll on Clinton.
"The steady drip, drip, drip of releases about the Clinton Foundation, her emails, the FBI report. There's a lot of information that feeds a negative narrative about Hillary Clinton at this point which could account for some of the narrowing," said Birdsell.
However, according to CBS News Elections Director Anthony Salvanto, Trump still has an uphill battle in the all-important battleground states.
"You'll hear a lot about Ohio, of course. You'll hear about Florida – he's go to win, he's got a narrow path," Salvanto explained. "He can do it, but he has to start picking them off."
Birdsell added that Clinton has a "clear Electoral College advantage."
"If the vote were cast today, yes, she has a clear Electoral College advantage. But it just bears mentioning again and again, these are the two most unpopular candidates who have ever run for president in the modern era, and they're both running at the same time," Birdsell stated. "That creates a great deal of volatility."
Clinton took questions from reporters on her plane, and bashed Trump over not releasing his tax returns.
"He said that the American people don't care about his tax returns and he also said that it's none of our business," the Democratic presidential nominee said. "I just think he's dead wrong."
Clinton had not held a press conference in 275 days, and many reporters said what she did on the plane was not a press conference, but more a question-and-answer.
On Wednesday, the nominees will be in New York for back-to-back appearances at a national security forum and previewed some of the themes on Tuesday.
"He's talked about letting Syria be a free-zone for ISIS. Look at the map, Donald," said Clinton.
Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin just "laughs" at Clinton.
"Hillary likes to play tough with Russia. Putin looks at her and he laughs, OK, he laughs," Trump said.
Some experts said the poll with Trump in the lead serves both campaigns: a shot of adrenaline for Trump supporters and a wake-up call for those in the Clinton camp.
