NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel on Friday denied Donald Trump’s assertion that any of its employees wrote jokes for him to deliver this week at a New York appearance.
The former president and current candidate said on “Fox & Friends” that “a couple of people from Fox” helped him prepare jokes for Thursday’s Al Smith dinner, a traditional event in the last weeks of a presidential campaigns where candidates usually appear.
“I shouldn’t say that,” Trump said. “But they wrote some jokes. For the most part, I didn’t like any of them.”
Candidates often turn to professional comedians for material when needed for such appearances; it would be eye-opening and ethically suspect if a news organization contributed.
But Fox, in a statement, said none of its employees or freelancers did so. Instead, Trump is believed to have received material from a comic who occasionally tries to sell jokes to the Fox show “Gutfeld.”
Trump was at the dinner, while opponent Kamala Harris sent in a taped routine.