Alyssa Farah Griffin admitted on Monday that she had “worked together” with New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman — who just published a book about former President Donald Trump — while she was still working in the Trump White House.
Griffin, who recently joined ABC’s “The View” as one of two Republican cohosts — the other being Ana Navarro — took on several different roles while working for the former president but left the White House after the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill. She and her cohosts welcomed Haberman to join Monday’s discussion.
WATCH:
Alyssa Farah Griffin admits she "worked together" with NYT's Maggie Haberman while at the White House and wonders about Trump's obsession with her.
"I think it's about The New York Times which he is uniquely obsessed with [because he wants their approval]," Haberman said. pic.twitter.com/y2e5jNwZuH— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 3, 2022
“Maggie, I can speak from personal experience — we worked together when I was at the White House — and there was no reporter who got under Donald Trump’s skin the way you did, but he was also fixated on and almost seemed to want your approval,” Griffin began, referencing her time as the White House Communications Director.
“There were countless times you’ll remember that I would have to go grab you and say, ‘He wants to do an interview now,'” Griffin continued. “And in fact, a couple of times, if the terms weren’t right, you’d say no. Why do you think he’s so fixated on you — and it goes into the same question of afraid of you?”
“Alyssa, I really think it’s about The New York Times, which he is uniquely obsessed with, and this has gone back for decades,” Haberman replied. “His sense of being from the outer boroughs in New York City, the elites who he felt like looked down on him, even though he wanted their approval.”
“I really think that’s a lot of what it’s about,” Haberman concluded, noting that she was just the reporter with whom he had direct interaction — which was why to the outsider, it might appear as though the obsession was with her rather than with the outlet for which she worked.
Haberman later went on to blame the media — primarily in the decade prior to Trump’s foray into politics — for essentially allowing him to build an empire of mythology around himself.
“Where I do think there is a significant criticism of the media is the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, when he was doing all of this myth making about himself and building this artifice brick by brick — and each brick was a news story… that, I think, is something the industry needs to deal with,” Haberman concluded.
WATCH:
Instead of blaming the media for doing Hillary Clinton's bidding by promoting Trump in 2016 because he's who she wanted to face, Haberman blames the media of the 70s, 80s, and 90s for helping Trump with his "mythmaking" and "building this artifice brick by brick." pic.twitter.com/UQQHiY7w8w
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 3, 2022