The specter of a drawn-out, Nixon-like investigation is clouding Democrat Hillary Clinton's race for the presidency with a new poll showing nearly half equating the email scandal to Watergate and even more worried that the FBI probe will drag on into her presidency.

While polls out Monday morning do not show a big swing away from Clinton to Republican Donald Trump, they do show renewed concerns about the revived investigation into her email server due to thousands of previously unknown emails found on the computer of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

While unlike Watergate, which eventually led to former President Richard Nixon's resignation, a Morning Consult poll asked voters to compare the 1970s-era affair to the email controversy and 45 percent said the Clinton email scandal is "worse than the Watergate scandal."

From the analysis of their survey conducted with Politico:

Public opinion on Clinton and Trump was stable despite the fact that 97 percent of those surveyed said they had heard about Clinton using a private email server and 89 percent said they had heard about the FBI review of emails that broke on Friday.



When forced to pick what is worse, Clinton's email use or Trump's comments on women and minorities, voters are split. Forty-five percent say Clinton's emails are worse, 48 percent Trump's comments are worse.

More people are worried that an investigation into Clinton's email will continue into her administration, 61 percent, than the 47 percent who think the same could happen to Trump and cases on Trump University.

Nearly half of those surveyed, 45 percent, say the Clinton emails were worse than the Watergate scandal, a talking point Trump has hammered since news broke Friday. More than eight in 10 Republicans say it is worse than Watergate.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com