“Maggie Haberman of the Failing @nytimes reported that I was annoyed by the lack of cameras inside the hospitals in Dayton & El Paso, when in fact I was the one who stated, very strongly, that I didn’t want the Fake News inside & told my people NOT to let them in,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Aug. 10.
“Fake reporting!”
“Never has the press been more inaccurate, unfair or corrupt! We are not fighting the Democrats, they are easy, we are fighting the seriously dishonest and unhinged Lamestream Media. They have gone totally CRAZY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he later added.
Haberman, a political reporter with The Times, regularly writes stories claiming to know what the president has been thinking and doing behind the scenes, relying on a bevy of anonymous sources. Her stories about Trump are almost all negative.
The trio, without presenting evidence, also claimed that Trump had an “angry reaction,” that at one point, he was “especially upset,” and at another time, “he was furious.”
One of the few people quoted on the record was Joe Lockhart, a former press secretary of President Bill Clinton. Lockhart said videos showing Trump meeting with shooting victims and their families were “disgusting.”
More on Haberman
Trump previously said that Haberman and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, a former aide to Bill Clinton, laughed when they were told he'd win the presidency.“You are one that said ‘Donald Trump is not going to win’ and then you smiled when I got into the race, and you laughed,” Trump told Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired on June 16.
“You and Maggie Haberman would laugh, ‘Haha,’ that was so funny, and I will give your deputy chairman of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] credit. Because he looked at the two of you and said, sorry to tell you but Donald Trump is going to win.”
Neither Stephanopoulos or Haberman disputed the account.
Haberman also had a close relationship with Hillary Clinton’s camp, emails published by Wikileaks showed.
“We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed,” Merrill continues. “While we should have a larger conversation in the near future about a broader strategy for reengaging the beat press that covers HRC, for this we think we can achieve our objective and do the most shaping by going to Maggie.”
The Times has defended her after a previous attack by Trump, saying they are “extremely proud” of Haberman.
Haberman hasn’t backed down from covering Trump and has even claimed to be able to understand his inner thoughts.
“I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘likes’ when describing President Trump’s feelings for The Times,” she said. “I do think the paper occupies a singular place in his psyche, representing, to him, the elites who he thought didn’t take him seriously when he was a developer from Queens trying to move into the Manhattan market.”