donald trump successfully used sunday<u+2019>s presidential debate to rally republican voters behind his candidacy, a new wall street journal/nbc news survey finds, but he trails hillary clinton by 9 points among likely voters and faces unease over his crude comments about women. the poll, conducted over three days, showed mr. trump gaining support after sunday<u+2019>s debate. he had trailed mrs. clinton by 11 points in journal/nbc news polling on saturday and sunday, conducted as news reports were filled with the disclosure of a 2005 recording of mr. trump<u+2019>s remarks about women . but that lead fell to 7 points in polling on monday, after mr. trump in the debate said he had apologized for those comments and revived accusations of sexual misbehavior by mrs. clinton<u+2019>s husband. over the three days of polling, before and after the debate, mrs. clinton<u+2019>s lead stood at 9 percentage points, 46% to 37%, among likely voters on a ballot including third-party candidates. the survey showed mr. trump narrowed the gap with mrs. clinton by drawing more support from republicans. some 89% of republicans said in postdebate polling that they would vote for mr. trump in a head-to-head matchup against mrs. clinton, up from 74% in weekend surveys. in weekend polling, some 39% of republicans had said gop candidates for congress should continue to support mr. trump as nominee. that share rose to 45% on monday. only 6% of republican voters said the party<u+2019>s congressional candidates should call for mr. trump to drop out of the race amid news of his comments about women, down from 14% who said so in weekend polling. some 38% of registered voters said over the weekend the 2005 recording disqualified mr. trump for office and that he should end his candidacy. that fell to 33% of voters on monday. the share rejecting the idea that he should exit the race rose by 11 percentage points, to 53%. <u+201c>after a weekend pause, republicans once again consolidated in support of trump,<u+201d> said bill mcinturff, a republican pollster who conducts the journal/nbc news poll with democrat fred yang. a large number of republican candidates drew distance from mr. trump over the weekend or called on him to withdraw from the race after the comments about women came to light. the journal/nbc news polling results underscore the penalty that those candidates may pay for failing to support a nominee selected during months of party primary elections. at the same time, the survey was full of warning signs for mr. trump: his advantage over mrs. clinton among republican voters, at 83 percentage points on monday on a two-candidate ballot, was weaker than mrs. clinton<u+2019>s 88-point advantage among democrats. that finding helps explain why mr. trump is attempting to rally his party by sharpening his attacks on mrs. clinton and her husband, who are widely disliked by the republican base. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s lead has widened since september, when she held a 6-point lead, according to journal/nbc polling. another troubling development for mr. trump: his aggressive personal style, while drawing working-class voters, appears to be driving away college-educated voters, particularly women. mr. trump now lags mrs. clinton by 29 percentage points among white women with four-year college degrees<u+2014>a group that mitt romney, the 2012 gop nominee, won by 6 points. one question for mr. trump is whether he can offset defections among those voters by drawing more working-class support. he leads among his strongest group, white men without a four-year college degree, by 36 percentage points in the new survey, a larger share than mr. romney<u+2019>s 31-point advantage over president barack obama in 2012. the new survey also showed how voters are reacting to news of mr. trump<u+2019>s boasts that his celebrity allowed him to kiss and touch women, caught on an open mic in what he thought was a private conversation 11 years ago. some 34% of voters in monday polling agreed with the statement that his comments were <u+201c>inappropriate but typical of how some men talk in private with other men.<u+201d> a slightly larger share, some 37%, had said over the weekend that the comments were inappropriate. a larger share, 41%, said the comments were <u+201c>completely unacceptable,<u+2019><u+2019> because they crossed a boundary into describing <u+201c>touching women in a sexual way without their consent.<u+201d> that share was stable over the three days of polling. the journal/nbc news survey included 500 registered voters on saturday and sunday, oct. 8-9, and 400 on monday, oct. 10. the margin of error was plus or minus 4.38 percentage points for weekend polling and 4.9 points for monday<u+2019>s sample. the margin of error for the full sample of 900 interviews is plus or minus 3.27 percentage points. write to aaron zitner at aaron.zitner@dowjonescom
hillary clinton leads donald trump by 9 points, poll finds  - wsj
aaron zitner