A new poll shows that Hillary Clinton's approval rating is even worse than Trump's
But negative perception of the president hasn't improved his former opponent's standing in the eyes of the public.
A new Bloomberg Politics poll released Tuesday showed Clinton with a 39% approval rating, two points lower than Trump's approval rating in the same poll. It's Clinton's second-lowest approval rating since Bloomberg started tracking her in 2009. The poll was conducted from July 8-12 among 1,001 adults, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.
It is normal for former candidates to experience a rehabilitation in the polls following a presidential campaign - Clinton experienced the phenomenon herself during her tenure as secretary of state, and her 2016 primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders remains one of the most popular politicians in America.
But the Trump White House and conservative media has remained in campaign mode against the former secretary of state, who has criticized Trump for misleading Americans with "alternative facts," and knocked policies like Trump's budget and healthcare plan.
Trump has repeatedly blasted Clinton since the election, making vague, unproven claims that the campaign violated laws.
But in follow-up interviews, Clinton voters who participated in the poll told Bloomberg that their negative feelings about her didn't have anything to do with her losing the election.
Bloomberg noted that voter comments "often reflected the ongoing angst among Democrats about how best to position themselves against Trump and Republicans in 2018 and beyond." Some voters commented that they liked Sanders better than Clinton and wished he was the Democratic nominee.
Chris Leininger, a 29-year-old insurance agent from California, said Clinton is "hard to like" and noted that she thought Sanders had a better story to tell voters.
"But I don't blame her for Trump," Leininger said. "There were a lot of factors that fed into Trump becoming a president and she was just one of them."
And a significant portion of Clinton's own voters said they don't like her. More than 20% of Clinton voters Bloomberg polled said they have an unfavorable view of her.