--- title: Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump After Second Debate description: Republican voters are in a tight spot over what party should do about Trump. canonical: https://time.com/4527825/poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-post-debate/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-12T14:04:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:50:27.876Z article:section: Politics og:title: Poll: Clinton Leads Trump By 8 Points After Second Debate og:description: GOP voters are in a tight spot over what to do about Trump. og:url: https://time.com/4527825/poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-post-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe047b0bdcb55a45/6988a9a697cdff42396ae251/hillary-clinton-leading.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Holds Ohio Campaign Rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Poll: Clinton Leads Trump By 8 Points After Second Debate twitter:description: GOP voters are in a tight spot over what to do about Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe047b0bdcb55a45/6988a9a697cdff42396ae251/hillary-clinton-leading.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump After Second Debate > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ace8d997-6b5c-47de-8a42-f4344614a535&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Biggest Moments from the Second Presidential Debate [Watch (HLS stream): The Biggest Moments from the Second Presidential Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0oFylqsH.m3u8) (3:19)  _Published 2016-10-10. The two candidates face off in the second of three presidential debates._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 12, 2016 2:04 PM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 12, 2016 2:04 PM UTC Hillary Clinton now [leads Donald Trump](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN12B2PV) by eight points among likely voters, according to a national tracking poll released Wednesday. The new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that after Sunday’s second presidential debate and the [leaked video of lewd comments](http://time.com/4523755/donald-trump-leaked-tape-impact/) he made regarding women in 2005, Republican voters are in a tight spot. One in five GOP voters say that his comments about women disqualify Trump from the presidency, while 58 percent say they would like Trump to remain at the top of the ticket and 68 percent said that party leadership should stand by their nominee. Trump on Tuesday declared that he had [taken the “shackles” off](http://time.com/4526316/donald-trump-takes-the-shackles-off/), before later [going on the offensive](http://time.com/4527497/donald-trump-oreilly-factor-paul-ryan-john-mccain/) about House Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders. Clinton’s lead has [continued to grow](http://time.com/4525282/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-tape-leak/), last week she led Trump by five points. Now, 45% of likely voters choose Clinton and 37% choose Trump, with another 18% declining to support either. Among debate watchers, some 53% said Clinton came out on top Sunday while 32% felt that Trump won. These results were rather partisan, as 82% of Democrats chose Clinton, while 68% of Republicans picked Trump. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online among 2,386 Americans, including 1,605 likely voters. The poll has a credibility interval of 2%. ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] Hello. Hello. Certainly, I'm not proud of it. But this is lock- a- room talk, you know. When we have a world. Where you have Isis chopping off heads, where you have, and frankly drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over. I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is, because we've seen this throughout the campaign. We have seen him insult women. We've seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to ten. We've seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter. It's just words folks. It's just words. If I win, I am going to instruct my Attorney General. To get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Our intelligence community just came out and said in the last few days that the Kremlin, meaning Putin and the Russian government, are directing the attacks, the hacking, on American accounts to influence our election. And believe me, they're not doing it to get me elected. To solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is, or at least say the name. She won't say the name and President Obama won't say the name. But the name is there. It's radical Islamic terror. It's also very shortsighted and even dangerous. To be engaging in the kind of demagogic rhetoric that Donald has about Muslims. It is sort of amusing to hear somebody who hasn't paid federal income taxes in maybe 20 years talking about what he's going to do, but I'll tell you what he's going to do. His plan will give the wealthy and corporations The biggest tax cuts they've ever had. Did you use that $ 960 million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes for- Of course I do! Of course I do! And so do all of her donors, or most of her donors. I know many of her donors, her donors took massive tax write- offs. [ CROSSTALK ] Personal federal income tax- A lot of my write- off was depreciation and other things that Hillary, as a senator, allowed. Russia hasn't paid any attention to ISIS. They're interested in keeping Assad in power. You're two minutes is up. I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up Because of our weak foreign policy. Would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] Look, I respect his children. His children are incredibly able And devoted, and I think that says a lot about Donald. I will say this about Hillary, she doesn't quit, she doesn't give up. I respect that. [ APPLAUSE ] And that's it, the 90 minute debate is now over. History has been made. 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