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ByMattSedensky The Associated Press NEWYORK NeitherHillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is seen as likely to unify the U.S. if elected, but pes- simism about the Republi- can candidate is far greater, according to a poll released Monday that reflects deep division in the country. The survey from The As- sociated Press-NORC Cen- ter for Public Affairs Re- search found 73 percent of Americans believe Trump will further divide the country, compared with 43 percent saying that about Clinton. While only about one- third of people believe Clinton's election would bring unity, that's still dou- ble the figure for Trump — 34 percent compared with 17 percent. Even among Republicans, just 38 per- cent saw their nominee as generating more national unity. Overall, the poll painted a portrait of a stunningly fractured country. Some 85 percent of people re- gard the nation as more politically divided than in the past; 80 percent view Americans as being greatly divided on the most impor- tant values. "It's just not a pleasant time in the country," said James Robertson, a Civil War historian at Virginia Tech. "The time is so unsta- ble, it's impossible to see the future." Seeing parallels to the 1850s and the lead-up to war, Robertson assessed this as the second-most di- visive time in U.S. history. The climate, he said, is even worse than in the 1960s, be- cause of the almost com- plete inability for lawmak- ers to find consensus and the tendency for minor dis- agreements to boil into huge rifts. Asked to identify the main thing that divides Americans, one in four sur- vey respondents cited politi- cal interests or values. Eigh- teen percent named eco- nomic interests or values; 14 percent said race and rac- ism. Separately, big major- ities faulted the news me- dia and elected officials as putting too much focus on divisions. And what unites Ameri- cans? Freedom and liberty are the top unifiers, cited by 16 percent of respon- dents. Perhaps reflective of the string of shootings and other painful recent events, 10 percent named crises or tragedies, making those the second-most cited unifiers. Those were followed by pa- triotism, fighting terrorism and other responses. A slim majority, 52 per- cent, said America's best days have passed. Those with favorable views of Clinton were far more likely to express optimism that the country's best days are ahead than those with fa- vorable views of Trump, 61 percent versus 39 percent. David Raif, a 35-year-old preacher in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, reflected the feelings of many respon- dents, who view both can- didates as leading the U.S. to more division. He typi- cally votes Republican but believes Trump's charac- ter and tendency to attack others inherently lead to greater splits. Clinton's per- sonality, he believes, has more potential at unifying the country, but he sees her liberal policies as ultimately ending up dividing people, too. Neither candidate, he said, is driven by principles. "Leadership with a lack of principles will lead the country down a road that will be more and more di- visive," Raif said. The AP-NORC poll of 1,008 adults was conducted June 23-27 — before the po- litical conventions — us- ing a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be represen- tative of the U.S. popula- tion. The margin of sam- pling error for all respon- dents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Some questions were asked of only half of respon- dents and have a higher margin of sampling error. Respondents were first se- lected randomly using ad- dress-based sampling meth- ods, and later interviewed online or by phone. Despite negativity ex- pressed in the survey, it found 81 percent of Amer- icans believe the U.S. is one of the greatest coun- tries in the world, if not the greatest. Perhaps par- adoxically, supporters of Trump, whose campaign mantra vows to return America to greatness, are more likely than Clin- ton supporters to say the U.S. already stands above all other countries. Older Americans are far more likely than younger peo- ple to rank the U.S. as the single greatest nation. Mary Smith, a 79-year- old retired secretary in Wil- low Oak, Florida, rated the U.S. as the greatest coun- try, saying she witnessed the goodness of its people as she moved from city to city with her late husband, a Navy submarine sailor. Each place they went, the Clinton supporter said, she found welcoming and kind- ness. "I have traveled an awful lot and people were nice to me everywhere I went," she said. "I really think we do more for our people than so many other countries do." PESSIMISM Poll: Regardless of vote, Americans see division PAULSANCYA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. By Julie Pace The Associated Press WASHINGTON A rising cho- rus of Republican lawmak- ers and veterans groups hastened to disavow Don- ald Trump's repeated crit- icism of a bereaved mili- tary family Monday, but the GOP presidential nom- inee refused to back down. He complained anew that he had been "viciously at- tacked" by the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq. Arizona Sen. John Mc- Cain, a former prisoner of war, led the charge, saying Trump did not have "un- fettered license to defame those who are the best among us." The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation's oldest and largest veterans organization, called Trump out of bounds for tangling with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son was killed in 2004. "Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate any- one berating a Gold Star family member for exer- cising his or her right of speech or expression," VFW leader Brian Duffy said. Democratic President Barack Obama chimed in, too, addressing the Dis- abled American Veterans in Atlanta. He said of families who have lost family mem- bers in the military service: "No one has given more to our freedom and our secu- rity than our Gold Star fam- ilies. ... They represent the very best of our country." Several other GOP law- makers also chastised Trump for sparring with the Khans, who appeared at the Democratic convention on behalf of Hillary Clin- ton. But like McCain, none revoked his support of the GOP nominee in the White House campaign. In an emotional appear- ance at last week's conven- tion, Khizr Khan criticized Trump for proposing to temporarily freeze the en- try of foreign Muslims into the U.S. and accused him of making no sacrifices for his country.Thebillionairebusi- nessman challenged that assertion and also implied Ghazala Khan's religion prevented her from speak- ing. On Monday, he tweeted that "Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously at- tacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same." For some of Trump's al- lies, it was the latest exam- ple of a troubling pattern: The real estate mogul fre- quently continues to hit back at perceived slights or insults, regardless of the po- litical implications. He has stunned rivals with his abil- ity to survive self-created controversies during the GOP primaries, but faces a broader set of voters in the general election. Indeed, some Repub- licans said privately that it was the timing of this flare-up that had them on edge— the spectacle of their candidate tangling with a military family just three months before Election Day. McCain was among sev- eral lawmakers — many fac- ing re-election this fall — who distanced themselves from Trump's comments Monday. Rep. Mike Coffman, a vulnerable Republican in a competitive Colorado dis- trict, said Monday he was "deeply offended when Don- ald Trump fails to honor the sacrifices of all of our brave soldiers who were lost in that war." Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said the Khans "deserve to be heard and respected." "My advice to Donald Trumphasbeenandwillcon- tinue to be to focus on jobs and national security and stoprespondingtoeverycriti- cismwhetherit'sfromagriev- ingfamilyorHillaryClinton," Blunt said in a statement. Trump advisers have spent months trying to help the political novice do just that, with few signs of prog- ress. Aides say that while Trump often professes to understand the risks of fu- eling a controversy, he can get drawn back. "It's just who he is," said Stuart Jolly, a former cam- paign staffer and current national political director for the pro-Trump Great America PAC. Newt Gingrich, the for- mer House speaker who has advised Trump, said the candidate's inability to back away from a political land mine "makes him vulnera- ble. ... He'll have to learn to grow out of it." While Trump and his al- lies often blame the media for keeping controversies alive, the businessman him- self often fans the flames. After winning the primary, he spent days criticizing a U.S. district court judge's Mexican heritage. He also refused to disavow a cam- paign tweet about Clinton that appeared to feature the Star of David. In spite of those fire- storms, Trump remains in a close race for the White HousewithClinton.Andfew Democrats appeared ready to declare Trump's criticism of Khan a turning point. The Khans appeared at the Democratic conven- tion Thursday night. The Pakistan-born Khizr Khan told the story of his son, U.S. Army Capt. Huma- yun Khan, and questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution. Dur- ing the speech, Ghazala Khan stood quietly by his side. POLITICS Criticism grows for Trump's assailing of family of deceased Muslim veteran CAROLYN KASTER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The tombstone of US Army Capt. Humayun S. M. Khan is seen in Section 60at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Monday. 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