The email bombshell that rocked the campaign of Hillary Clinton last week and led to a furor that has seen President Obama opaquely criticizing his own FBI chief is looking more and more like a dud.
A New York Times/CBS poll taken after the news hit and released today shows Clinton with a narrow lead over Donald Trump.
Related: Did a Mutiny at the FBI Impel Comey to Send That Letter?
The poll has Clinton at 45 percent vs. Trump at 42—a margin-of-error advantage. The survey of 1,333 registered voters, many of whom had already cast early ballots, was taken hours after a letter from FBI Director James Comey to Congress was made public. The letter alerting lawmakers said that a new batch of emails possibly relating to the Clinton email scandal were under scrutiny.
Many voters told The New York Times that they had made up their minds, and fresh revelations about either candidate were unlikely to affect their choices. One in five who took the survey had already voted.
There is also other evidence that the FBI probe of emails found on computers in the possession of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, is not having much impact on the presidential race.
Related: Why a Growing Number of Republicans Are Criticizing the FBI’s Comey
After being beaten down on social media, where opinions can often reflect a visceral reaction to news Clinton is clawing her way back. Opinions about her on the social-media sentiment site 30dB took a nosedive after the Comey letter, with her positive ratings dropping from well above Trump to well below—27 percent vs. 44 percent.
Today, the two candidates are only a few points apart.
