President Trump railed against a recent Fox News poll on Friday, calling it “phony” and declaring his former favorite news network a “group of haters” for showing him trailing his Democratic opponent Joe Biden by the widest margin seen so far this year.
.@FoxNews is out with another of their phony polls, done by the same group of haters that got it even more wrong in 2016. Watch what happens in November. Fox is terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
The poll showed 50 percent of respondents favoring a vote for Biden, compared to 38 percent for Trump. The Biden lead has widened slightly since the network’s last poll, which found 48 percent backing Biden and 40 percent supporting Trump.
Trump’s attack on the network’s poll results reflects a temperamental attitude he’s had in recent weeks with the network. Last month he called some Fox News anchors and contributors out for repeating “the worst of Democrat speaking points.”
Trump also previously lashed out after a CNN poll showed him falling behind Biden, calling it “FAKE” and assuring his audiences on Twitter that the pollsters he retained would see to the unskewing of results. Trump also demanded an apology from the network for the unfavorable results.
The president has made a habit of discrediting people, data and institutions he believes do not favor him. On Thursday Trump argued that a Supreme Court decision that upheld the Obama-era “DACA” program reflected the court’s distaste for the president.
The Fox poll was conducted from June 13 to 16, reflecting shifts in public opinion after Trump’s recent blunders, from a widely criticized indoor campaign rally that critics say poses heightened risks as a potential “super-spreading” event for the coronavirus, in addition to his handling of issues of race amid protests against police violence.
