When Trump calls New York Times reporter a “Crooked H flunkie” he is probably referring to this story, something he may have been reminded of by a Fox News personality, as reported in fake news website The Daily Wire (see left) in October of 2016 (I doubt Trump remembers such things).
WikiLeaks Outs NYT Maggie Haberman as Clinton Operative
Excerpts:
Maggie Haberman is one of the most dishonest journalists I have ever come across. Going back five years to when she was still with Politico, I have repeatedly exposed her lies and fraud. She is currently with the New York Times, and thanks to WikiLeaks, we now have incontrovertible proof that Haberman is nothing more than a spin doctor for Hillary Clinton and her campaign.
Glenn Greenwald:
One January 2015 strategy document — designed to plant stories on Clinton’s decision-making process about whether to run for president — singled out reporter Maggie Haberman, then of Politico, now covering the election for the New York Times, as a “friendly journalist” who has “teed up” stories for them in the past and “never disappointed” them. Nick Merrill, the campaign press secretary, produced the memo, according to the document metadata:
That strategy document plotted how Clinton aides could induce Haberman to write a story on the thoroughness and profound introspection involved in Clinton’s decision-making process. The following month, when she was at the Times, Haberman published two stories on Clinton’s vetting process; in this instance, Haberman’s stories were more sophisticated, nuanced, and even somewhat more critical than what the Clinton memo envisioned.
But they nonetheless accomplished the goal Clinton campaign aides wanted to fulfill of casting the appearance of transparency on Clinton’s vetting process in a way that made clear she was moving carefully but inexorably toward a presidential run.
Fast forward to yesterday and this morning:
Trump says he doesn’t speak to Haberman and has nothing to do with her. I suppose this slipped his mind:
Habers hits back:
This is the story that seems to have set Trump off:
For years, a joke among Trump Tower employees was that the boss was like Manhattan’s First Avenue, where the traffic goes only one way.
That one-sidedness has always been at the heart of President Trump’s relationship with his longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who has said he would “take a bullet” for Mr. Trump. For years Mr. Trump treated Mr. Cohen poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired, according to interviews with a half-dozen people familiar with their relationship.
“Donald goes out of his way to treat him like garbage,” said Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s informal and longest-serving political adviser, who, along with Mr. Cohen, was one of five people originally surrounding the president when he was considering a presidential campaign before 2016.
Now, for the first time, the traffic may be going Mr. Cohen’s way. Mr. Trump’s lawyers and advisers have become resigned to the strong possibility that Mr. Cohen, who has a wife and two children and faces the prospect of devastating legal fees, if not criminal charges, could end up cooperating with federal officials who are investigating him for activity that could relate, at least in part, to work he did for Mr. Trump.
Maggie Haberman doesn’t sit still when she’s attacked on Twitter.
Last April she and Sean Hannity had an acrimonious go around which followed her publication of this piece:
Excerpt:
.
The Media
Sean Hannity
Presidents always deploy surrogates to appear on television to spout their talking points, but Mr. Trump has expanded on that by developing relationships with sympathetic media figures like Mr. Hannity who also serve as advisers. Mr. Hannity, the Fox News host, defends Mr. Trump’s most controversial behavior in public, but privately, according to people close to Mr. Trump, he urges the president not to get distracted, and advises him to focus on keeping pledges like repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The story of the back and forth was reported in the Jewish Daily Foward (Haberman is Jewish):
Stay tuned.