George Stephanopoulos Reveals Trump’s Off-Camera 2016 Meltdown Over Putin: ‘Should Have Been The Biggest Tell In The World’

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos described then-candidate Donald Trump‘s off-camera 2016 meltdown over being questioned about Vladimir Putin, saying the interaction should have been a red flag.

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman wrote about the incident in her book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. But on Tuesday night’s edition of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, host Stephen Colbert asked Stephanopoulos to explain what happened after that July 2016 interview:

STEPHEN COLBERT: She details how the then candidate, former president, lashed out at you after a 2016 interview you did with him. Why did he lash out at you? Because he lashed out so many ways to so many people. What was the lashing about?

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, it was the interview was the day after the Democratic convention in 2016. I guess it was a Friday. I flew out to Colorado to meet him in some town and we started to talk. And I asked him a question about, remember this Gold Star mother, the Muslim woman whose son was killed in Iraq?

STEPHEN COLBERT: Sure, sure.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And he attacked her and he just went after her. And I was like, I guess the interview is over. He just ended his campaign. But we kept on going. And I started to ask him about his relationship with Vladimir Putin, which he never gave a straight answer. Did he say he knew him? He said he didn’t know. He said he met him. He said he didn’t meet him. So I asked him about three or four times, just, you know, just tell us what the relationship was. And I was just asking factual questions, went three or four times with him. And he finished the interview and he walked out of the door and called over my producer, who had been traveling with one of the embeds traveling with him, and I could hear the yelling in the hallway. Then he had Hope Hicks come back into the room and get me and walk me into the hall. And then he started yelling at me, going on and on and on and on and on, because I asked him about Vladimir Putin, which should have been the biggest tell in the world back in 2016.

STEPHEN COLBERT: Yes.

Watch above via CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.