Donald Trump said Friday that Fox News employees wrote some of the jokes he told at the Al Smith dinner the night before. Then, hours later, the conservative network denied it.
During Trump’s appearance on “Fox & Friends,” host Steve Doocy said the former president’s material was “real funny ― who helped you with it?”
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“I had a lot of people helping, a lot of people, a couple people from Fox — actually, I shouldn’t say that ― but they wrote some jokes,” the Republican nominee admitted. “And for the most part, I didn’t like any of them.”
That got a laugh from the morning show panel, but some observers on X, formerly Twitter, didn’t find his comedy collaboration with the right-wing station so funny.
“WtF? Fox staff are now writing one liners for him??? Not sure that’s how journalism works,” one critic wrote. “Inappropriate,” another commented.
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There is precedent for major politicians seeking media help for material, Mediaite pointed out. Former President Barack Obama enlisted a “Daily Show” writer to pen shtick for a White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011.
In 2020, MSNBC cut ties with Jon Meacham as a contributor when it was revealed that he was helping Joe Biden with his speeches.
Trump got mixed reviews for his set at the annual Catholic event, which Democratic nominee Kamala Harris did not attend in favor of a campaign stop. She did, however, submit a video.
“She’s in Michigan receiving communion from Gretchen Whitmer,” Trump cracked.
The former president got big laughs from Hillary Clinton when he said they bumped into each other and she said, “Pardon me.”
But he bombed with barbs about Obama.
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The event has been criticized for normalizing Trump as a candidate but it also highlighted his oddly symbiotic relationship with Fox News, an outlet he seems to regard as his own PR agency.
However, the channel forcefully disputed the Republican nominee’s claim.
“Fox News confirmed that no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes,” The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr reported on X.
