Hillary Clinton continued to distance herself from Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in the Democratic delegate count on Super Tuesday, but the polls showed she still struggles deeply with voters who care about honesty in their candidates.
MSNBC's Kristen Welker pointed out the disparity between Sanders and Clinton when voters based their preferences on trustworthiness, which appears to be part of the continued fallout from her private email scandal and the ensuing federal investigation.
"Some other things that the Clinton campaign is not going to be so happy about," Welker said. "When voters were asked about honesty and trustworthiness across nine states, 69 percent of them chose Sen. Sanders and 29 percent chose Secretary Clinton."
When Sanders routed Clinton in the New Hampshire primary last month, a whopping 92 percent of voters who cared most about honesty chose the Vermont senator.
Further complicating the picture for Clinton as she looks ahead to the general election was the news on Super Tuesday that Clinton hit a new high of 55 percent of American voters viewing her unfavorably, a record high for her:
Currently, 55 percent of American voters view Clinton unfavorably, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday that was conducted in the days leading up to the Democratic primary in South Carolina, which Clinton won over the weekend. This represents the highest unfavorable rating that Clinton has registered in the history of the poll, which has asked the question since March 1992.
The share of Americans viewing Clinton negatively has ticket up three percentage points in the last month as reports have continued to emerge about the presence of classified information on Clinton’s private server, a controversy that has been brewing for nearly a year.