AP Photo Trump accuses NBC/WSJ poll of being a 'Rupert Murdoch hit'

Donald Trump discounted the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday as "phony," remarking in a radio interview that the survey represented a "Rupert Murdoch hit."

“In my opinion, it was a fix, you want to know the truth," the Republican candidate told Sirius XM's Breitbart News Daily in an interview with host Stephen Bannon on Thursday. "CBS just came out with a poll that says the same as every other poll. You know, Wall Street Journal came out with a poll, ‘cause I’m not a big fan of the Wall Street Journal."


Bannon interjected: “That’s the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Wall Street Journal. Is it not, sir?”

“Well, it was a Rupert Murdoch hit," Trump responded. "It was just a Rupert Murdoch hit.”

Murdoch has periodically weighed in on the White House race on Twitter, and has at times appeared to praise Trump's campaign. He weighed in on Trump's plan to temporarily ban Muslims, saying, "Complete refugee pause to fix vetting makes sense." He also spoke previously of Trump's "winning strategy," tweeting this in January: "Cruz bets uniting white conservatives/evangelicals enough, Meanwhile Trump appealing across party lines. Surely the winning strategy."

Trump on Thursday morning bashed the NBC/WSJ national poll, which found Cruz passing Trump, albeit by a razor-thin margin. And two other new national polls showed him with the comfortable double-digit lead to which he has grown accustomed.

In explaining what he meant by a "hit," the businessman laid out his argument. “Well, something’s wrong. Because look, every single poll, every single poll that has come out nationally and locally, by the way, you see locally, I mean we’re doing fantastically well, right? South Carolina, we’re doing fantastically well," he remarked. "But every single poll that has come out over the last you know long time, has me at 15, 20 points [up] nationally."

"All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the Wall Street Journal poll comes out and I’m essentially even but down two points to [Ted] Cruz, of all people. Cruz can’t get elected dogcatcher. So I’m down two points to Cruz," he continued.

Noting that the Journal put the results of the poll on its front page on Thursday morning (headline: "Trump Loses Ground in New Poll") but not after the last survey it sponsored in January, he complained that he "could not even find it" at the time.

The results of that poll, which found Trump ahead by 13 points, were relegated to the sixth page of the front-page section. Instead, the paper devoted its main political headline to the previous night's GOP debate.