Yahoo Finance Donald Trump Denies He Asked His Justice Department to Do Something About SNL
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live (left) and Donald Trump
Donald Trump released a bizarre statement Tuesday night railing against Saturday Night Live once again, this time denying a recent report that he had asked the Justice Department while in office to step in and somehow undercut the show.
The Daily Beast reported that Trump, 75, allegedly once asked his White House aides about the possibility of having the DOJ take action against the long-running comedy show after he got upset watching an episode in which Alec Baldwin spoofed him.
But it wasn't just Baldwin, per this report: The Daily Beast wrote that, according to two people familiar with the exchange, Trump asked his aides what the DOJ "could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers."
"It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you," one of the sources told the outlet, adding that staffers told Trump they'd look into it but never did.
The former president, who had tweeted in March 2019 to suggest the federal government could get involved with regulating the satirical late-night show, denied the Daily Beast report in a characteristic statement to reporters not long after the story was published.
"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," he said. "It was fabricated, there were no sources, and yet the Lamestream Media goes with it."
"I did say, however, that Alec Baldwin has no talent, certainly when it comes to imitating me," he wrote. "The one who had what it took was Darrell Hammond."
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Donald Trump
Trump reiterated that he believes SNL's comedy should be "illegal."
"I do believe that the 100% one-sided shows should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat Party," he said, before he continued to falsely insinuate that he didn't lose the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
Since begrudgingly leaving office earlier this year, after his unprecedented second impeachment, Trump has largely remained at his private golf clubs in Florida and New Jersey while making a series of conservative media appearances.
He is also facing mounting legal pressures.
He continues to tease a 2024 presidential run and did so again in his Tuesday night statement.
Biden, 78, announced in late March that he expects to run for president again alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
