Donald Trump cut into Hillary Clinton's advantage slightly after the second presidential debate but trails his rival by 9 points just weeks before Election Day, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Clinton garners 46 percent of support from likely voters in a four-way race, compared with 37 percent for Trump, 8 percent for the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson and 2 percent for the Green Party's Jill Stein, according to the poll. In a head-to-head race, Clinton leads Trump by 10 points, 50 percent to 40 percent.

The poll, conducted on Oct. 8-10, follows another NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken after the leak of a 2005 video that shows Trump joking about groping women without their consent. That poll, which happened Saturday and Sunday, showed Clinton with an 11-point lead in a four-way race.

Trump fared slightly better in the poll released Tuesday, which adds interviews that took place on Monday following the town hall debate in St. Louis. The results exclusively after the debate show a 7-point lead for Clinton in a four-way race.

Republicans also indicated their desire for the party to support Trump as its nominee even after numerous GOP lawmakers pulled their support and House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would focus on keeping a congressional majority. About three-quarters, or 74 percent, of Republicans said they want down ballot candidates to support Trump, up from 67 percent before the debate.



Though Trump fared better following the debate, it did little to make voters like him. His favorability rating in the poll released Tuesday is 30 percent positive and 63 percent negative, versus 29 percent positive and 63 percent negative before the debate.

The margin of error for the 806 interviews of likely voters from Saturday through Monday was 3.45 percentage points.