Hillary Clinton's popularity has plunged since election, poll finds

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Hillary Clinton email server investigation widens

Rep. Mark Meadows calls on DOJ to hand over documents showing coordination with FBI in 2016 election; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.

Hillary Clinton, well over a year after she lost the 2016 election to President Trump, is less popular than ever, according to a poll released this week.

Only 27 percent of those polled had a very or somewhat positive view of the former secretary of state, according to The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. That makes her less popular than President Trump, whose popularity registered at 35 percent. It is a new low for her in the poll, which clocked her popularity at 30 percent in August 2017.

A Journal analysis of the poll notes that the poll is a reminder of “just how unusual” Clinton is in terms of her unpopularity -- even among recent losing presidential nominees who have typically experienced a post-election decline, but not to the extent Clinton has. At the time of the election, 40 percent had a positive view of her. 

While Clinton and Trump now both have similar levels of unpopularity (52 and 53 percent, respectively), her lower positive rating means Clinton’s favorability gap is wider. Trump, meanwhile, has faced a rocky first year as president overshadowed by constant controversies including a wide-ranging investigation by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Clinton has stayed on the political stage. She has set up the political action organization Onward Together and released a lengthy campaign post-mortem titled, “What Happened.” She went on a speaking tour coinciding with the book's release and has made numerous additional appearances discussing her 2016 loss. 

Yet the scandals that dogged her throughout the campaign have not gone away. The question of her email use when she served as secretary of state is still in the spotlight as the FBI’s handling of the probe itself is under scrutiny. And Trump has continued to launch the occasional attack on his former election rival.

This week, Trump used former FBI Director James Comey’s book launch to again call Clinton “crooked.”

“[Comey’s] handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst 'botch jobs' of history,” he tweeted.

Earlier this month, Clinton said in a speech that she was focused on the upcoming midterm elections.

“My goal is to take back the House and the Senate,” she said.