Former President Donald Trump lashed out at the Daily Beast for reporting that he pushed the Justice Department to investigate the show “Saturday Night Live” for making fun of him, calling the report “fake news.”
Trump released an angry statement on Tuesday, forcefully denying he did any such thing — but maintaining that SNL’s satire of his behavior could somehow 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,” wrote Trump. “It was fabricated, there were no sources, and yet the Lamestream Media goes with it.”
He then continued by pushing his big lie about the election that led to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
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“I do believe that the 100% one-sided shows should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat [sic] Party, hard to believe I got 75 million votes (the most of any sitting President) despite all of that, together with a very Fraudulent Election.”
He concluded his rant with an apparent wink to QAnon: “2024 or before!”
Trump releases a statement denying he asked his DOJ to go after SNL. He then concludes the statement with "2024 or before!" — a nod toward the idea he could be reinstated (He cannot be reinstated) pic.twitter.com/C9NAytESCO
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) June 22, 2021
Of course, satire is legal under the First Amendment and unlike things on Fox News, for example, SNL doesn’t paint itself as “news.”
