The New York Times on Tuesday disputed President-elect Trump’s claim that the paper made an unexpected change the terms of which the two parties were supposed to meet this week.
In a statement sent Tuesday morning to the Washington Examiner, Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said her publication was not aware of the meeting cancellation until Trump announced it on Twitter.
“We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to,” she said. “[Trump’s team] tried to yesterday, asking for only a private meeting and no on-the-record segment, which we refused to agree to. In the end, we concluded with them that we would go back to the original plan of a small off-the-record session and a larger on-the-record session with reporters and columnists.”
It was reported Monday that Trump would meet with representatives from the Times. But the next morning, he said on Twitter that he “cancelled today’s meeting with the failing Times when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice.”
Trump and his team canceled the meeting less than a day after ugly details of a similar meeting he had with TV news executives and journalists leaked out in press reports.
That meeting was held Monday and was also intended to be off the record. The New York Post and other outlets reported, however, that inside the meeting Trump complained at length about coverage of his campaign and his transition process into the White House.
