Fox News Poll: Voters Think Clinton and Trump Will 'Do Anything' to Win

Most voters think Hillary Clinton is dishonest and will do anything to get elected, and many feel it’s likely the Clintons were selling influence through their foundation.  At the same time, most think Donald Trump is dishonest and will do anything to get elected, and many think he’s hiding something in his unreleased tax returns.

That’s according to the latest Fox News Poll.

It’s tough to say who stinks more.  A large 44-percent minority says both Clinton and Trump are “terrible” candidates.  Voters dislike each -- and say they are dishonest and lack empathy.

Only 35 percent say Trump is honest and trustworthy, barely better than the 31 percent who say Clinton is.

Less than half of voters say “cares about people like me” fits Clinton (47 percent) and Trump (37 percent).

Just over half see Clinton (51 percent) and Trump (51 percent) as being “a strong leader.”

However, that doesn’t translate into being “a reliable leader.”  Some 38 percent say that describes Trump, down from 46 percent in May.  Forty-five percent feel “a reliable leader” fits Clinton, up from 43 percent. 

Most voters say Clinton (74 percent) and Trump (68 percent) will “do anything” to get elected.

On the plus side, 78 percent say “intelligent” describes Clinton, while 57 percent think that fits Trump.

"Typically, partisans become more positive toward their candidate in the last two months of the campaign; they rationalize their vote," says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll along with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.  "But this tendency has been muted here, as the events of the past week -- Clinton's troubles with the emails and her foundation, Trump's refusal to release his tax returns -- have reinforced the skepticism many have about the character of the major party candidates."

A record-high 42 percent view Trump favorably, while 56 percent view him unfavorably.  That’s a net negative rating of -14 points.  Earlier this month it was -27 (36-63 percent).

For Clinton, 45 percent have a positive opinion of her vs. 53 percent negative.  That gives her a net negative of -8 points.  She was at -11 in early August (44-55 percent). 

Pollpourri

The poll, released Wednesday, asks voters about some of the uglier campaigning.  Here are the top five takeaways.

-- Nearly one third thinks the election is rigged, either for Clinton (23 percent), for Trump (5 percent), or who knows (4 percent).  Democrats (74 percent) are much more likely than Republicans (56 percent) and independents (54 percent) to say it is not rigged.

-- A handful of voters are concerned Clinton (24 percent) and Trump (15 percent) may not be physically fit enough to be president.  That includes about 1-in-10 of each candidate’s own party.

-- Sixty percent think Trump is “hiding something” in his tax returns.  By comparison, 44 percent say Clinton set up a private email server to “hide things.”  Fifty-two percent say she did so for convenience.

-- Sixty-six percent of voters think it’s likely the Clintons were selling influence to foreign contributors who made donations to the Clinton Foundation.  Even 43 percent of Democrats believe that.

-- By a 19-point margin, more think it is fair for Clinton to call Trump a racist (46 percent), than it is for Trump to call Clinton a bigot (27 percent).  Thirteen percent of Democrats think it’s fair to call Clinton a bigot, while 20 percent of Republicans say it’s justified to call Trump a racist.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,011 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from August 28-30, 2016.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.