A New York Times reporter who was raked over the coals by President Donald Trump over the weekend fired back on Monday, saying she'd hit a nerve with the commander in chief by reporting he had abused his personal attorney Michael Cohen for years.
"He is abusive, according to almost everyone I speak to, to most people in his orbit and family is not excepted from that. But he is particularly abusive to Cohen over the years. And then the question becomes does that come back to haunt him?" Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman said on CNN's "New Day."
Last Friday in an article headlined, "Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore," Haberman and two colleagues wrote that Trump's lawyers and advisors believe there is a "strong possibility" Cohen will cooperate with a federal probe of work he did for the president. It quoted Trump adviser Roger Stone saying, "Donald goes out of his way to treat [Cohen] like garbage."
The piece infuriated Trump who launched into a tweet storm on Saturday morning, raging:
The Times is standing by the report and Haberman suggested on CNN that Trump is running scared.
"This is a topic … that is one that is hitting a nerve with him. I think that he and his lawyers are very anxious about the Southern District investigation into Michael Cohen. That is right now more of an imminent threat than the Robert Mueller special counsel probe is," Haberman told CNN's Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo.
"The story was really not about destroying their relationship. The president has destroyed their relationship pretty handily on his own over a very long period of time and that what is the story is about."
Asked how her weekend was in the wake of Trump's fiery tweets, Haberman replied with a smile, "It was my daughter's birthday on Saturday, thank you for asking."
Cohen, who has been described as the president's longtime "fixer," is currently dealing with the FBI raids on his office and hotel room earlier this month in which the feds searched for details about his $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. She claims the payment was in return for keeping quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
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