LISTEN: Trump Denies Watching Jan. 6 Riots Play Out on Television in New Tape of Interview With Maggie Haberman
New York Times’ Maggie Haberman shared recordings she took of Donald Trump when she interviewed the former president for her upcoming book, and they lent to some interesting revelations.
Haberman joined CNN’s New Day on Monday, a day before the release of her Trump biography, Confidence Man. While Trump has taken to trashing the book despite granting Haberman multiple interviews, CNN aired a number of recordings from those conversations — one of which reveals Trump bragging that he took the letters he got from Kim Jong Un when he left the White House.
From the recording:
Haberman: Did you leave the White House with anything in particular? Are there any memento documents you took with you, anything of note?
Trump: Nothing of great urgency. I had great things, you know. The letters, the Kim Jong Un letters. I had many of them.
Haberman: You were able to take those with you?
Trump: I think that’s in the archives, but most of it is in the archives. But the Kim Jong Un letters, we have incredible things. I have incredible letters with other leaders.
This would seem relevant to the FBI’s search weeks ago for the classified documents Trump was illegally keeping at Mar-a-Lago, and Haberman noted Trump’s hedging throughout that exchange.
“It was a very vague statement,” Haberman said. “I asked the question on a lark, just knowing how he liked items like those Kim Jong Un letters. His initial instinct was to say ‘no, no,’ then he sorta seemed to want to brag about having something, then when he registered my surprise, took it back. It was a classic moment in interviewing him.”
Shortly after that, CNN aired another tape of Haberman asking Trump how he found out that his supporters were attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
His answer:
I had heard that afterwards and actually on the late side. I was having meetings. I was also with mark meadows and others. I was not watching television. I didn’t have the television on. I didn’t usually have the television on. I’d have it on and there was something. I then later turned it on and saw what was happening.
This answer contradicts numerous sources close to Trump who’ve said that he watched the riot unfold for hours instead of trying to stop it. Haberman and CNN’s Brianna Keilar both noted this as the latter asked “did you know at the time that he was lying to you?”
“I assumed that this did not necessarily comport with reality,” Haberman answered. “It certainly didn’t comport with my understanding of it. Again, because we did not have House testimony, we didn’t have any of the items we now have in terms of people being under oath, it was less clear. It was still unclear exactly what he was claiming, when he learned about it, or how. We have since heard testimony that he was very clear on what was happening throughout.”
Watch above via CNN.
