Real estate magnate Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continue to be the top choice of Republican and Democratic voters in the race for their respective parties’ nomination for the US presidential election, a major opinion poll has said.
Trump (46 per cent) has been leading the three-man Republican race with a huge 20 percentage point over Senator Ted Cruz (26 per cent).
Ohio Governor John Kasich is placed third with 20 per cent point, according to the poll conducted by CNN/ORG.
As per the CNN/ORC poll, Trump would bring the most excitement if he were the nominee, with 40 per cent of Republican and GOP-leaning independents saying they would be enthusiastic with him as the nominee.
As many as 47 per cent of Republicans say they’d most like to see Trump win their party’s nomination, about the same as the 49 per cent who said they would be most likely to support him in February.
Among the Democrats, Clinton continues to top Bernie Sanders in the race for nomination, with 51 per cent saying they’d most like to see her as the nominee while 44 per cent backed Sanders to lead the party in the November election.
Meanwhile, Trump and Clinton slammed each other as both said the other is not qualified enough to be US president.
On CNN, Clinton referred to recent statements by Trump, which she said makes him unfit for the presidency.
“We need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday and who knows what on Wednesday because everything’s negotiable. Some things aren’t negotiable and anyone who doesn’t understand that has no business being our president,” Clinton told an audience of American Israelis earlier in the day.
“I think it’s important to listen to what he says. You have to take him at his word so to speak. He’s been engaging in bigotry, bluster and bullying. And I think when it comes to understanding what he would do as president there are serious questions that have been raised in this campaign. Should he be the nominee we’ll have to address them,” she said.
“I think his behaviour certainly qualifies him as a bully due to his incitement of violence, his urging on of his supporters in large numbers to go after protesters,” she said.
Trump also fired back during a similar interview to CNN.
“I think she doesn’t have the stamina. You watch her life.
You watch how she’ll go away three or four days; she’ll come back. I just don’t think she has the stamina,” Trump said.
“We have got to beat China in trade. We’ve got to beat ISIS. We’ve got so many problems in this country, I say she does not have the stamina to be a good president. Plus, she’s always got problems, whether it’s Whitewater, or whether it’s the e-mails, it’s always drama. It should end,” he said.
“It should end. She shouldn’t even be running. Honestly, she shouldn’t be allowed to run based on the e-mails. She’s being protected,” he said.