'Trustworthy' Trump? Plagued by Email Controversy, Clinton's Lead Plummets

The race between the two presidential frontrunners remains too close to call in the final stretch leading to the two major party conventions, as new polling shows that Donald Trump has overtaken Hillary Clinton in key battleground states while her national lead has shrunk to just three points.

A McClatchy-Marist survey released Wednesday found that in a head-to-head match-up, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is currently ahead 42 to 39, which McClatchy notes, marks the first time that support for Clinton has dropped beneath 50 percentage points.

At the same time, likely Republican nominee Trump is now leading in Florida and Pennsylvania, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, while the two remain locked in a tight race in Ohio. Since 1960, no candidate has won the presidency without winning at least two of those states.

In Florida, support for Clinton dropped 8 points since June 21, when she was ahead 47-39 percent. She now trails Trump by three points.

She also lost her lead in Pennsylvania, where voters now back Trump 43 to 41 percent, compared to June 21 when Clinton had 42 to Trump’s 41 percent.

And in Ohio the two continue to be locked in a tie with 41 percent each, which is just a slight change from the June 21 result, which found a 40-40 percent tie.

Both polls attributed Clinton’s slip to the recent controversy over the FBI’s recommendation not to charge the former secretary of state for her “extremely careless” handling of classified material through the use of a private email server.

“While there is no definite link between Clinton’s drop in Florida and the U.S. Justice Department decision not to prosecute her for her handling of e-mails, she has lost ground to Trump on questions which measure moral standards and honesty,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

The billionaire real estate mogul is perceived to be “more honest and trustworthy” than Clinton in each of those swing states. In fact, he now leads in that category by double digits in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida.