The New York Times said Monday it would not discuss or release a recording of Donald Trump reportedly saying in an off-the-record editorial board meeting in January that he is flexible on immigration reform until the billionaire businessman gives his permission.
“We will not discuss what was off the record during the meeting,” the newspaper’s executive director of communications, Danielle Rhoades, told the Washington Examiner’s media desk.
Trump met with the Times’ editorial board on Jan. 5 to discuss his presidential campaign.
The Times recorded audio of the meeting, and released portions to the public, including Trump’s on-the-record suggestion that he’d level extreme tariffs on Chinese goods. The part where Trump reportedly suggested that his position on immigration is negotiable came during the off-the-record portion of his meeting with the Times’ editorial board.
Because Trump’s immigration comments were made off-the-record, the newspaper said it can’t release the audio without the GOP candidate first giving his “OK.”
News that the GOP front-runner revealed to the Times’ editorial what he really thinks about illegal immigration was reported first by BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith.
Times columnist Gail Collins, who was present for the Jan. 5 meeting with Trump, wrote Saturday, “The most optimistic analysis of Trump as a presidential candidate is that he just doesn’t believe in positions, except the ones you adopt for strategic purposes when you’re making a deal.”
“So you obviously can’t explain how you’re going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, because it’s going to be the first bid in some future monster negotiation session,” she added.
BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith reports there’s much more to the second part of Collins’ take on Trump’s immigration platform.
“Sources familiar with the recording and transcript, which have reached near-mythical status at the Times, tell me that the second sentence is a bit more than speculation,” he wrote. “It reflects, instead, something Trump said about the flexibility of his hard-line anti-immigration stance.”
As to what Trump actually said in the meeting is up for debate. It is unclear whether the casino tycoon abandoned “a core promise of his campaign in a private conversation with liberal power brokers in New York,” Smith added.
Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal declined to comment when asked to explain the nature of Trump’s immigration remarks.
“If [Trump] wants to call up and ask us to release this transcript, he’s free to do that and then we can decide what we would do,” Rosenthal told Smith.
Presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, responded to the news Sunday by calling on Trump to allow the Times to release the audio.
“Now that’s been reported, The New York Times apparently has this on tape, but it was an off-the-record tape so The New York Times has said they will not release the tape unless Donald gives them permission to do so. I call on Donald to ask The New York Times to release the tape and do so today before the Super Tuesday primary,” he said.
Another 2016 GOP candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also called on Trump to make the audio available, saying it’s important, “so we can see what he actually believes about [an] issue he’s made cornerstone of campaign.”
Representatives for Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment from the Examiner.
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This story has been updated with comment from the Times.
