Donald Trump has canceled his meeting set for this morning with reporters and editors of the New York Times after the Times requested that the meeting “be mostly on the record.” Trump took to Twitter around 6:30 a.m. to say the meeting was off:
His meeting yesterday with more than a dozen TV news executives and anchors representing ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, was kept off the record. But the New York Post reports the meeting felt like “a f–ing firing squad,” according to one attendee. The Post reports about 30-40 people were in the Trump Tower meeting room for the Monday afternoon gathering.
“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars,” the source said.
“Trump didn’t say [NBC reporter] Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate – which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room.”
Trump transition official Kellyanne Conway had a different take, publicly calling the meeting “very cordial, very productive, congenial.” But she added, “it was also very candid and honest.”
Update: The meeting is back on, and Trump will be going to the New York Times building, CNN’s Brian Stelter tweeted at 9:43 a.m.:
Hope Hicks confirms that the Trump/NYT meeting is back ON… Trump is heading over to NYT HQ shortly…
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 22, 2016
The meeting with the @nytimes is back on at 12:30 today. Look forward to it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
2 of 2 President Elect will meet with our publisher off-the-record. Then, on-the-record with our journalists & editorial columnists.
— Eileen Murphy (@NYTeileen) November 22, 2016