New York Times correspondent, best-selling author, and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman recently disclosed an illuminating detail from her sources who noted that the ex-President Donald Trump held up his ringing phone for guests at a recent dinner. It was Bret Baier calling about the Fox News debate via Media Ite.
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum and fellow Fox News anchor Bret Baier have been on a bit of a media tour to promote the debate they’re co-moderating next Wednesday on Fox, and perhaps draw Trump out of the woodwork and onto the stage.
And The New York Times reported earlier this month that Fox News President Jay Wallace and CEO Suzanne Scott had dinner with Trump at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey to persuade him to participate in the debate.
It now appears the charm offensive didn’t work Trump now says he’s skipping the debate to do something else. But Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Jeremy Peters dropped a deep dive Saturday morning that goes into detail on the quest to land Trump — and the way Trump strung them along.
That dynamic is probably best summed up by the dinner anecdote:
“On a cool August night on the crowded patio of his private club in New Jersey, former President Donald J. Trump held up his phone to his dinner companions.
The Republican front-runner was having dinner with a Fox News contributor and columnist, Charlie Hurt, when a call came in from another member of the Fox team. The man on the other end of the line, Mr. Trump was delighted to show his guests, was Bret Baier, one of the two moderators of the first Republican debate on Wednesday, according to two people with knowledge of the call.
It was Mr. Trump’s second Fox dinner that week. The night before, he had hosted the Fox News president, Jay Wallace, and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, who had gone to Bedminster, N.J., hoping to persuade Mr. Trump to attend the debate. Mr. Baier was calling to get a feel for the former president’s latest thinking.”
The piece later notes this wasn’t the only call — “Mr. Baier has spoken to Mr. Trump at least four times over the phone to make his case. Mr. Trump has explained his reluctance, but always left the door open to a late change of plans,” Haberman’s team wrote.
