Ex-President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday night that he didn’t ask the Justice Department to go after SNL and late-night comedians for dunking on him.
But, he added, comedians being mean to him should be “illegal.”
“The story that I asked the Department of Justice to go after ratings-challenged (without Trump!) Saturday Night Live, and other late-night Losers, is total Fake News,” Trump fumed in a statement issued through his Save America PAC, adding that Alec Baldwin, who impersonates him on SNL, “has no talent.”
“With all of that being said, however, I do believe that the 100% one-sided shows should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat Party,” Trump added.
The story he’s referring to is the Daily Beast’s report on Trump privately asking advisers in 2019 if the DOJ or other federal agencies could do anything to stop TV comics from mocking him.
The Daily Beast noted in its response to Trump’s claim that it did not report the ex-president had actually asked the agencies to do so, only that he had talked with allies about it.