UPDATE: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, 10:04 a.m. ET: Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s transition team, told reporters that the President-elect’s meeting with the New York Times is back on, according to a President-elect pool report. Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy also issued a statement to the pool saying that the meeting will take place.
“Mr. Trump’s staff has told us that the President Elect’s meeting with The Times is on again. He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists,” Murphy said in the statement.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Early Tuesday morning, Donald Trump published tweets announcing that he had cancelled a meeting with the New York Times set for Tuesday.
The President-elect claimed that the paper changed the conditions of the meeting and railed against the Times’ coverage of him.
I cancelled today’s meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
The failing @nytimes just announced that complaints about them are at a 15 year high. I can fully understand that – but why announce?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Trump was scheduled to meet with New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., as well as reporters and editors for the New York Times on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the New York Times told NPR’s David Folkenflik that the paper learned that the meeting was cancelled from Trump’s tweet. The spokeswoman said that Trump’s team tried to renege on the original plan to hold both an off-the-record segment and an on-the-record meeting.
NYT on cancelation of Trump meeting: “We were unaware that the meeting was cancelled until we saw the President Elect’s tweet” (more)
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) November 22, 2016
2/ NYT spokeswoman says paper made no attempt to change ground rules of meeting but Trump camp sought to eliminate on record portion/ con’t
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) November 22, 2016
3/ NYT spokeswoman says NYT refused to agree to hold meeting off session; original plan seemingly held: small off record + large on record
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) November 22, 2016
4/ Then, according to NYT, @realDonaldTrump tweeted at 6.16a meeting canceled. Poss motivation in following tweet: https://t.co/sBJH6TWxgs
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) November 22, 2016
Jonathan Mahler, a New York Times reporter, also disputed Trump’s account on Twitter.
NYT did not try to change ground rules. Trump did, asking for only a private meeting and no on-the-record segment, which NYT refused. https://t.co/EpmZFdDYAh
— Jonathan Mahler (@jonathanmahler) November 22, 2016
