NEW YORK (AP) — Fox The News Channel on Friday denied Donald Trump’s claims that any of his staffers wrote jokes for him to deliver this week during his appearance in New York.
The former president and current candidate said on “Fox & Friends” that “a few people from Fox” helped him prepare jokes for the Al Smith Thursday Dinner, a traditional event in the final weeks of a presidential campaign at which the candidates usually appear.
“I shouldn’t have said 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 materials if needed for such performances; it would be eye-opening and ethically questionable for any news organization to contribute.
However, in a statement, Fox said that none of its employees or freelancers had done so. Instead, Trump is believed to have received the material from a comedian who occasionally tries to sell jokes to Fox’s “Gutfeld.”
Trump was at the dinner and opponent Kamala Harris sent a taped show.
