Trump says “people from Fox” helped him write Al Smith’s dinner speech. The network denies this

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CNN
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Former President Donald Trump said Friday that Fox News staffers helped him write his Al Smith benefit dinner speech, in which he made jokes and insulted his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump made the comment during an interview on “Fox and Friends” in which he was asked about his monologue at the event Thursday night in Manhattan. Host Steve Doocy said Democrats traditionally “turned to the guys from 'Saturday Night Live' or 'The Tonight Show;' 'They write all their material'” before asking Trump who helped write his speech.

“I had a lot of people, actually a few people from Fox, I shouldn’t say that. But they wrote a few jokes. I didn’t like most of them,” Trump said to laughter from his co-hosts.

During his speech to the friendly Catholic Charities audience, Trump disparaged Harris' intelligence, insulted her family and complained about how poorly he was treated during his presidency, drawing occasional cheers and a few laughs.

While many Fox News personalities are openly pro-Trump and use their television platforms to promote the former president and his narratives, it is rare for any of them to become involved in his campaign in a formal way. But it wouldn't be the first time. In 2018, host Sean Hannity campaigned with Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

In a statement to CNN, Fox News denied that any of its employees helped Trump with the jokes.

“FOX News has confirmed that no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes,” a spokesperson for the network said.

Two people familiar with the matter said comedian Nick Di Paolo, who has written jokes for Fox News host Greg Gutfeld but does not work for the network, supported Trump in his speech.

The Trump campaign did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Trump also told the show's hosts that he had scheduled a meeting with the right-wing channel's founder, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, following the interview, and demanded that the channel remove advertising and characters on the show that criticize Trump's candidacy , should be blocked.

“I’m going to see Rupert Murdoch,” Trump said. “I don’t know if he’s thrilled that I’m saying it. And I'm going to tell him something very simple because I can't talk to anyone else about it; Don’t do any negative commercials for 21 days, don’t run them – and don’t put their horrible people on the air, they come and lie.”

“I'm going to say, 'Rupert, please do it this way,” Trump said, predicting he would get his way. “We’re going to get a win because I think that’s what everyone wants.”

“I don’t think you should run negative ads,” Trump told the hosts. “It's very hard. You put on a show – and I complain about it all the time, I love complaining, I love complaining, I want everything to be perfect – but when I leave here I'm going to have 200 people,” said Trump and broke off.

“Because they’re buying time on Fox,” interjected host Brian Kilmeade.

The former president's comments come after years of strained relations between the network and its founder. Trump had previously called Murdoch a “MAGA-hating globalist RINO” while accusing him of “supporting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA.”

On Thursday, Trump also criticized the network's CEO, Suzanne Scott, for giving airtime to Democrats.

“Why does Fox News' Suzanne Scott keep using third-rate 'talking heads' like Jessica Tarlov, Richard Fowler, Patrick Murphy, 'something' Wolf, Keisha Lance Bottoms and other radical left-wing lunatics to lie and make up statements?” Fox, the has little to counter their storytelling?” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “If I win, and I hope so for the sake of the country, and that radical left-wing idiot, Kamala, doesn’t get a chance to run the country, it will be DESPITE Fox, not because of them!”

Trump's attacks on Fox came after Harris sat down with host Bret Baier this week for her first-ever formal interview with the network, which drew nearly 8 million viewers, easily surpassing the 3.1 million who watched Trump's all-female town hall, which aired earlier today on Fox.