US election poll: Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton for first time since May

Tom Powell3 November 2016

Donald Trump has overtaken Hillary Clinton in a US election poll for the first time since May.

The controversial Republican candidate is one percentage point ahead of his rival in the poll by national broadcaster ABC, with just one week to go.

Mr Trump is at 46 per cent, while Mrs Clinton polled at 45 per cent.

The pair had been neck-and-neck in the poll for the past week but voters’ enthusiasm for Mrs Clinton dipped following the FBI’s announcement it is reopening an investigation into her emails.

Hillary Clinton has gone on the offensive after the bombshell revelation by declaring “there’s no case here”.

But Mr Trump has narrowed the gap on her in various polls as the race to become the 45th US president nears its end.

He tweeted today: “Wow, now leading in @ABC /@washingtonpost Poll 46 to 45. Gone up 12 points in two weeks, mostly before the Crooked Hillary blow-up!”

Just six minutes later he followed it with: “Crooked Hillary should not be allowed to run for president. She deleted 33,000 e-mails AFTER getting a subpoena from U.S. Congress. RIGGED!”

Mr Trump had fallen as much as 14 points behind Mrs Clinton in some polls before the FBI announced its new investigation. His ratings were especially damaged after a series of allegations, which he denied, of sexual assaults on women were made against him.

But when he was informed of the FBI’s investigation moments before taking the stage at a rally in New Hampshire on Friday, he hailed it as a scandal that was “bigger than Watergate”.

He told cheering supporters that he has "great respect" for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now "wiling to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made" in concluding the investigation earlier.

Mrs Clinton's email use has been one of the biggest vulnerabilities in her campaign for the White House. Even if she wins, Republicans have vowed the issue will follow her, promising continuing investigations.

“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” said her campaign chair John Podesta.

“Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call."

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