AP Photo Poll: Clinton leads Sanders by 31 points ahead of debate

Bernie Sanders might be writing his inauguration speech, but Hillary Clinton remains firmly in the lead of the Democratic race on a national level, according to the results of the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday.

Clinton's advantage in the race for the Democratic nomination shows few, if any, signs of abating, despite voters seeing her as less honest than her closest rival.


Clinton earned the support of 59 percent of the Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters surveyed, down 1 point from November, while the Vermont senator picked up 28 percent, a decrease of six points in the same period. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley picked up 5 percent support, up from 3 percent.

While 38 percent said they found Clinton more honest and trustworthy, 44 percent said the same of Sanders. On terrorism, however, 64 percent to 26 percent said Clinton would be better than Sanders on handling those issues. Larger shares also said Clinton is closer to them on the issues and better understands their problems.

Yet in interview published Thursday with The Huffington Post, Sanders said that he has already begun writing his inauguration speech.

"Have I started writing my inauguration speech, as opposed to the speech I have to give tomorrow?" he said. "Look, the answer is yes. It is a very sobering thing to be thinking about oneself as president of the United States and the enormous responsibilities that go with that."

Langer Research Associates conducted the poll from Dec. 10-13, surveying 1,002 adults overall with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Among the Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters surveyed, the margin of error is plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.