Clinton tops Trump by 6 points in new national polls

 
US Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton emerges from the first presidential debate with a comfortable lead over Republican rival Donald Trump in the race for the White House, new national polls show.

According to NBC News/SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll released on Tuesday, Clinton holds a 6-point lead over Trump 46 percent to 40 percent.

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson holds steady with 9 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein gets 3 percent. 

The former US secretary of clinches 50 percent in a head-to-head matchup, but still leads the billionaire by 6 points.

She leads Trump by 8 percent among female voters, 52 percent to 34 percent. Trump leads the former First Lady by 17 points, 52 percent to 35 percent, among married men, but when it comes to men who have never been married, she recaptures the lead, 51 to 28 percent.  

Clinton leads Trump by double digits among mothers, but fathers support Trump by a similar margin.

According to a new CNN/ORC poll, also released on Tuesday, Clinton is leading Trump by five points, 47 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters. Johnson gets 7 percent and Stein 2 percent.

The poll comes eight days after the first presidential debate between the two candidates on September 26, which became the most-watched presidential face-off in the history of US elections.

During the fiery face-off, Clinton accused Trump of racism, sexism and tax avoidance, putting the real estate tycoon on the defensive for much of the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

In the first Politico/Morning Consult poll after the debate, 49 percent of the respondents thought Clinton had won.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump reported a loss of $916 million on his 1995 income tax returns, and, according to tax experts, the tax deduction was so substantial that could have allowed Trump to legally avoid paying taxes for a period of 18 years.