Poll: Half of Americans view Hillary unfavorably

Hillary Clinton’s favorability rating has sunk to its lowest level in more than a decade, as voters paint her with a lack of empathy in a new CNN/ORC poll.

{mosads}Forty-six percent of Americans view Clinton favorably, while half of voters view her unfavorably, putting her favorability rating underwater for the first time since March, 2001.

Views of Clinton’s honesty and empathy have dropped off as well.

Voters who think she is honest and trustworthy have fallen 8 points over the past 15 months, while those who think she cares about people like them have dropped 6 points in 11 months.

The results also showed lukewarm feelings on some of the major issues that have dogged Clinton on the trail — her use of a private email server as secretary of State, and her response to the Benghazi attack.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans are not satisfied with the way Clinton handled the Benghazi attacks, while 38 percent are satisfied. That 20-point gap has grown12 points since last year.

A majority of Americans, 51 percent, say that Republicans have handled hearings on Benghazi appropriately.

While Clinton’s support among Democrats has dropped 9 points in the past month, she still holds a commanding lead over the rest of the field and is the first choice of six out of 10 Democrats. Vice President Biden follows with 14 percent, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 10 percent, former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) at 2 percent, and former Gov. Martin O’Malley (Md.) at 1 percent. Former Gov. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) polled less than a percentage point.

She also defeats all of the Republicans polled against her in a hypothetical general election matchup. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) comes the closest with a 1-point margin, at 48 to 47 percent. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.) both trailed Clinton 46 to 49 percent. Former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) scored 43 percent of the vote, while Clinton secured a majority in matchups against each Republican candidate.

–This report was updated at 8:01 a.m.