hillary clinton picked up support over donald trump in the presidential campaign, according to a new wall street journal/nbc news poll taken after a videotape of the republican nominee making vulgar remarks surfaced, but before sunday night<u+2019>s debate . meanwhile, a plurality of voters reject calls for him to withdraw from the race<u+2014>which some gop officials made in the wake of the remarks<u+2014>and two-thirds of republicans questioned believe gop candidates should stand by him as nominee. according to the new survey, mrs. clinton jumped to an 11-point lead over mr. trump, 46% to 35%, among likely voters on a ballot including third-party candidates, up from 6 percentage points in september, when the split was 43% to 37% in a four-way contest. the wall street journal/nbc news survey was taken saturday and sunday, in the time between the video being released and his defense of his comments in sunday<u+2019>s televised debate with hillary clinton. in that debate, mr. trump said he had been engaging in <u+201c>locker room talk<u+2019><u+2019> and revived accusations of sexual assault by mrs. clinton<u+2019>s husband, former president bill clinton. interviews for the poll were continuing monday and could signal whether mr. trump had rebounded after sunday<u+2019>s debate. the newly public recording, in which mr. trump bragged that his celebrity allowed him to grope and kiss women, prompted wide condemnation within his own party<u+2014>and calls from some elected gop officials for him to step aside in favor of another nominee. however, the survey of 500 registered voters found that 38% believed that the comments had disqualified mr. trump for office and he should withdraw, with 42% disagreeing with the idea that he should exit the race. on the other hand, 42% of voters agreed with the statement that the tape should not be an issue in the race because it is a decade old and because mr. trump has apologized. some 52% disagreed. about one-third of voters said they saw mr. trump<u+2019>s comments on the tape as inappropriate, but typical of how some men talk in private, in keeping with mr. trump<u+2019>s description of his remarks. by contrast, a larger share, 41%, said agreed with the statement that mr. trump<u+2019>s comments were <u+201c>completely unacceptable<u+201d> and had crossed a boundary into describing ``touching women in a sexual way without their consent.<u+2019><u+2019> the poll tested the candidates in a four-way contest that also included libertarian party nominee gary johnson and green party candidate jill stein. their standing remained unchanged from september, drawing support from 9% and 3% of likely voters. the poll found mrs. clinton running stronger with her party base than mr. trump is with his. some 72% of republicans said they would vote for mr. trump, well below the 85% of democrats backing mrs. clinton. that stands as a troubling sign for the gop nominee. there are usually fewer republicans than democrats in the presidential voter pool, and gop nominees cannot afford to lose many members of their own party. the weekend survey found signs of women moving away from mr. trump. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s advantage among women increased to 21 percentage points, from 12 points in the september journal/nbc survey. mr. trump retained a small, single-point advantage among men. mr. trump has recovered from a string of controversies in the past, but the 2005 recording was the first to trigger mass defections by fellow republicans. at the same time, some voters may view his debate performance sunday as credible, helping him to slow the erosion. the poll found that 67% of republicans say that gop candidates should continue to support him as the nominee. that illustrates the political risks facing other republican officeholders who are thinking of disavowing mr. trump, because they may face backlash from a sizable number of gop voters. but in a sign that republicans could suffer big down-ballot losses as a result of the new controversy, the poll found the advantage of the democrats on the question of which party should control congress widened to 7 percentage points, up from 3 percentage points in a journal/nbc news survey last month. the journal/nbc news survey was conducted oct. 8-9 and included 500 registered voters. the margin of error for that sample was plus or minus 4.38 percentage points. write to janet hook at janet.hook@wsj.com
hillary clinton<u+2019>s lead jumped after lewd trump video, before debate, in wsj poll - wsj
janet hook