Sunday 25 September 2022 06:08 PM Trump mocked Ron DeSantis as 'fat','whiny' and denied watching Capitol riot on ... trends now
Donald Trump spoke with New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman three times over the course of a few months, according to the excerpt of her forthcoming book
Donald Trump called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential rival, 'fat' and 'whiny,' a new book excerpt revealed on Sunday.
He also referred to his former House Republican ally as 'phony' and took credit for his narrow 2018 victory over ex-Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the Florida governor's race, according to New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman.
An excerpt from Haberman's forthcoming book, 'Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump And The Breaking of America,' was published in The Atlantic on Sunday.
It details three separate meetings between the former president and the veteran New York journalist, who covered him even before the White House.
The second, which occurred at Mar-a-Lago in the spring of 2021, saw Trump deny that he had been watching television as his supporters stormed the US Capitol in January of that year.
He had been asked what exactly he was doing in the hours between when the mob broke in and when he finally told them to go home.
'I didn’t usually have the television on. I’d have it on if there was something. I then later turned it on and I saw what was happening,' Trump said, according to Haberman.
'I had heard that afterward and actually on the late side. I was having meetings. I was also with Mark Meadows and others. I was not watching television.'
She wrote of overhearing that Trump called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a 'phony' among other insults
Since their meeting, multiple testimonies compiled by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack have contradicted Trump's version of events.
Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria said at lawmakers' eighth hearing in late July: 'President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American
