Donald Trump Slams Fox News Poll, Disputes ’30 Hours’ Title Of ABC Special
President Donald Trump took on the “fake news” again today. While that in itself hardly qualifies for a headline, this part of his tweet du jour (or du hour) does: It targets Fox News.
“Something weird going on at Fox,” the leader of the free world appeared to notice today.
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He was talking about a new poll from Fox News that found 50% of Americans favor his impeachment or removal from office. More context on that and the second part of Trump’s double-duty tweet below, but read it first:
.@FoxNews Polls are always bad for me. They were against Crooked Hillary also. Something weird going on at Fox. Our polls show us leading in all 17 Swing States. For the record, I didn’t spend 30 hours with @abcnews, but rather a tiny fraction of that. More Fake News @BretBaier
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2019
The poll that elicited Trump’s friendly fire was released Sunday and reported today on Fox & Friends First. It showed that 50% of repsondents believe that POTUS should be impeached or removed from office. The president obviously was not amused.
The tweet in question also took aim at another news outlet, ABC News, for the title of its widely seen and cited George Stephanopoulos sit-down with Trump. That special, which is titled 30 Hours – Donald Trump and aired on ABC’s 20/20 — showed, among many other things, the former Clinton press secretary asking about Trump’s leaked internal polling that shows him trailing Dem challengers in 15 of 17 swing states. The president immediately denied that, saying on camera, “Those polls don’t exist.”
But word also spread today that Trump has cut ties with some of his pollsters — apparently over the leaks and not the results. Make your own inferences.
Separately tonight, CBS News annonced that its Major Garrett will interview Trump campaign manager Brad Pascale. It will air Wednesday on CBS Evening News and digital outlet CBSN.
Meanwhile, It’s worth noting that perhaps even Fox News didn’t know what to make of its poll that so riled Trump. Mediaite noted today that that FNC misrepresented its own findings — twice. First, Fox & Friends First showed a graphic that noted 50% of pollees replied “No” to whether Trump should be “impeached or removed from office.” One problem: The actual question was, “Do you think President Trump should be impeached and removed from office, or not?” The answer to that query was 43% saying “yes,” 7% saying “impeachment only” and 6% saying “don’t know”
Later the updated graphic looked like this on FNC’s Bill Hemmer-hosted America’s Newsroom:
You read that correctly. Reminder that being “impeached” and “removed from office” are entirely different, so taking into account the 6% “don’t know” crowd, that would leave just 42% saying the president should not be impeach not removed.
It’s not entirely clear why Trump cited Bret Baier in today’s tweet, but the latter sometimes has been critical of the former of late.
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