President Donald Trump’s campaign criticized a recent Fox News poll that claimed 51% of Americans want him impeached and removed from office, citing a sample size that included significantly more Democrats than Republicans.
“It’s not hard to get 51% in favor of impeachment when nearly half of those polled were Democrats,” a Trump campaign official said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “The media should put this poll where it belongs – in the garbage.”
“51 percent wants Trump impeached and removed from office, another 4 percent want him impeached but not removed, and 40 percent oppose impeachment altogether,” Fox News reported Wednesday, a result that signified a 9 percent jump from July, when the question was last posed.
The poll was conducted October 6 – 8 during a heated national discussion about Trump’s July 25 call to Ukraine’s president, during which he asked for assistance investigating both 2016 election interference and possible illegal activities on the part of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. (RELATED: Rush Limbaugh: Fox News Should Change Name To ‘Fox Never Trumper Network’)
While 48.1% of its random sample of 1,003 voters considered themselves Democrats, only 40% were Republicans. Independents comprised only 12 percent, a fact Trump War Room’s Twitter account was quick to take issue with.
The Fox News poll is trash!
Nearly half of the sample is Democrat (48%). Only 40% Republican & 12% Independent.
Independents OPPOSE impeachment & removal by 47-39, but they are greatly underrepresented in this poll.
This poll is meant to create public opinion, not measure it!
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 10, 2019
The network’s July polling sample included 46% Democrats and 15% Independents, a 5 percent shift that, while still leaning heavily Democratic, might have represented a shift from the narrative of the majority of Americans supposedly supporting removing the president from office.
Trump himself ripped the poll, along with its sponsor, on Thursday via Twitter, calling the network “different than it used to be.”