Hours after a Fox News poll showed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump, the network published a story smearing the former vice president as Osama bin Laden's choice for president.

In a poll published on Wednesday, Fox News found that voters favor Biden over Trump by 8 percentage points.

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The network noted that Trump "is up by only 7 points among men, below his 17-point advantage in 2016."

Just hours later, Fox News published a second story linking Biden to Osama bin Laden.

According to the report, the terrorist leader wanted to assassinate then-President Barack Obama to allow a Biden takeover.

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The report states:

Usama bin Laden wanted to assassinate then-President Barack Obama so that the "totally unprepared" Joe Biden would take over as president and plunge the United States "into a crisis," according to documents seized from bin Laden's Pakistan compound when he was killed in May 2011.

The news was first published by The Washington Post in 2012. Fox News did not explain why it decided to dig up the story years later.