The FINANCIAL — Hillary Clinton is back today with a new book, “What Happened,” to further explain why Donald Trump is president instead of her. But most voters still don’t buy her excuses and think it’s time for her to step off the national stage.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 30% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Clinton still has a future in public life. Sixty-one percent (61%) say it’s time for her to retire, up from 55% just after she lost the presidential election to Trump last November.
Half (49%) of voters believe Clinton’s continued presence on the national stage is bad for the Democratic Party. Only 21% say her presence is good for her party, while 23% say it has no impact.
Forty-four percent (44%) say the weakness of her candidacy was the most likely reason for Clinton’s loss last November. Just 11% attribute the loss to the strength of her opponent. Forty percent (40%) still agree with Clinton that outside factors beyond her control were the most likely reason, but that’s down from a high of 44% in May.
Democrats remain more supportive than others of their unsuccessful 2016 presidential nominee.
Most voters still believe Clinton is likely to have broken the law in her handling of classified information as secretary of State and disagree with the FBI’s decision to keep secret its files on last year’s Clinton probe.
While most Republicans (59%) and the majority (53%) of voters not affiliated with either major party think Clinton lost because of the weakness of her candidacy, 65% of Democrats blame other factors instead.
Just over half (54%) of voters in her party still think Clinton has a future in public life, little changed from November. Only 38% of Democrats believe the former first lady and Obama-era secretary of State is good for their party, though; 28% say she’s bad for Democrats.
Men believe much more strongly than women than it’s time for Clinton to retire. But even a plurality (42%) of women voters agrees that Clinton’s continued presence on the national stage is bad for the Democratic Party.
Most voters of all ages agree it’s time for Clinton to retire, but older voters believe that more strongly than those under 40.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of blacks see outside factors as the most likely cause for Clinton’s defeat, but only 36% of whites and 41% of other minority voters agree. Even among voters who blame outside factors, just 37% say Clinton’s continued public presence is good for the Democratic Party.
Among those who last December said Clinton’s loss was due to outside factors, 40% named FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that the agency was reopening its investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information while she was secretary of State as the biggest factor. Twenty-one percent (21%) said Russian interference in the U.S. election was the most likely reason for Clinton’s defeat, but nearly as many (19%) blamed so-called “fake news” sites on the internet. Only three percent (3%) said the WikiLeaks disclosures leading up to the election were the most likely reason Clinton lost, while 15% said it was something else not named in the survey.
Last October, 53% of all voters still disagreed with the FBI’s decision not to indict Clinton for her mishandling of classified information. Seventy percent (70%) said the classified information issue was important to their vote for president.
Right after the election, voters by a 48% to 35% margin said the results were more a vote against Clinton than a vote for Trump.
As recently as April, 61% of Democrats still did not believe that Trump fairly on the election. But 58% believe their party needs new leadership.
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