Fox News Shoots Down Trump Claim Network Employees Helped With Al Smith Dinner Jokes

Fox News shot down Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s claim that he had help from network employees in preparing his jokes for the Al Smith Dinner on Thursday.

“FOX News confirmed that no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes,” explained the network in a statement obtained by Mediaite.

A source also told Mediaite that Trump was likely referring to a joke given to him by Nick DiPaolo, a comic who has contributed jokes to Fox’s Gutfeld!, but is not an official employee or freelancer.

In a Friday morning appearance on Fox & Friends, Trump said that “a couple of people from Fox” helped him plan his remarks for the high-profile event, before adding, “I shouldn’t say that, but they wrote some jokes, and for the most part, I didn’t like any of them, right?”

While it is not uncommon for politicians to receive help from comedians in such instances — a Daily Show writer helped President Barack Obama prepare for the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, for example — Fox is denying that anyone from their network lent a hand to Trump ahead of Thursday’s event.

Trump’s Fox & Friends appearance produced another awkward moment when, at its conclusion, the former president announced he was headed to a meeting with Rupert Murdoch.

“I’m going to see Rupert Murdoch. That’s a big event. I don’t know if he’s thrilled that I say it. And I’m going to tell him, I’m gonna tell him something very simple because I can’t talk to anybody else about it: Don’t put on negative commercials for 21 days, don’t put them. And don’t put on the air their horrible people. They come and lie. I’m going to say, ‘Rupert, please do it this way,'” said Trump.

“And then we’re going to have a victory, because I think everyone wants that,” he concluded.