POLL: Hillary Clinton opens up big lead over Donald Trump after his rough week
A Morning Consult/Politico poll of likely national voters released Monday gave the former secretary of state a 6-point lead over Trump in a four-way race, with Clinton garnering 42% support to Trump's 36% support, while Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson received 6% support and Green presidential nominee Jill Stein received 2% support.
Clinton's surge comes after a week of largely negative major stories the Republican presidential nominee has attempted to brush off.
After the first presidential debate on Monday, which was widely seen as a success for Clinton, the real-estate magnate raised eyebrows by repeatedly discussing the physical appearance of Alicia Machado, the winner of the 1996 Miss Universe pageant whom Trump asked to lose weight.
Further, a New York Times report released over the weekend found that Trump could have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years after a major loss of over $900 million, according to the real-estate mogul's 1995 tax returns.
Last week's Morning Consult/Politico poll, conducted partially after the first presidential debate, found the Democratic presidential nominee with a four-point lead nationally over Trump. Just a few days earlier, a similar Morning Consult poll showed the real-estate magnate with a slight edge over Clinton in a four way race with Johnson and Stein.
Despite Clinton's bump following the debate, polling analysts like Princeton University Polling Expert Sam Wang assert that the polling is actually as stable as other years, largely due to the fact that most likely voters have already chosen which party they will support.
"The polling data is surprisingly unvariable," Wang told Business Insider late last month. "This year's election is as stable as four years ago in 2012, with Obama versus Romney, maybe even a little more stable."
He added: "Even though this year is weird, it probably reflects increasing voter polarization."