Trump slams Fox News poll on U.S. voters' attitudes toward impeachment inquiry

Engulfed in an impeachment inquiry, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed a new Fox News poll showing over half of U.S. voters surveyed support impeaching and removing him.

Released Wednesday, the poll showed 51 percent of the 1,003 randomly chosen registered voters want Trump to be impeached and removed from office. The result compared to 42 percent in July, before House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry into Trump in September over the president's alleged inappropriate interactions with Ukraine.

"From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll," the president tweeted with fury. "Whoever their Pollster is, they suck."

Compared to other media outlets, Fox has been viewed by Trump as being friendly to him and the president has oftentimes retweeted Fox's positive reports about him. This time, however, he tweeted: "But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days."

The poll, conducted Oct. 6-8 with a margin of sampling error of plus and minus 3 percentage points, also showed 51 percent of the surveyed consider the Trump administration more corrupt than previous ones, up from September's 46 percent.

A rough transcript of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 showed the U.S. president asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Biden senior is Democratic presidential candidate for the 2020 election and vice president of the United States during former President Barack Obama's administration.

The poll showed that an overwhelming majority, or 66 percent, of the respondents believe it's not appropriate for Trump to ask foreign leaders to investigate his political rivals, and that 43 percent of them agree that what Trump said on the phone was an impeachable offence.

Trump tweeted last Friday that his request for an investigation into the Bidens is not a political campaign against them. "This does have to do with their corruption!"

In an earlier tweet, Trump claimed that he as president has an "obligation" to end corruption, "even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic congresswoman who announced the initiation of the impeachment process, in a Tuesday statement accused the Trump administration of "brazen efforts to pressure foreign powers to intervene in the 2020 elections."

The Fox News poll showed that 42 percent of the respondents are in favor of Pelosi's opinion in the impeachment inquiry, compared to 43 percent who side with Trump.

Separately, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday showed 55 percent of the respondents think Congress should launch an impeachment investigation into Trump, 24 percent believe there is enough evidence justifying the president's impeachment and removal, and 31 percent say the decision should be contingent upon further proof to be found in the impeachment inquiry.

The poll was conducted with 800 adults between Oct. 4 and 6, with a margin of sampling error of plus and minus 3.46 percentage points.