After Bob Woodward reported in his new book Fear that President Trump once called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a "dumb Southerner," the president denied that he'd ever used that language about not just Sessions, but anyone. But a journalist who spent years interviewing Trump is crying foul.
Former Page Six deputy editor Jeane MacIntosh, who frequently interacted with Trump in his Manhattan mogul days, told The New York Times on Friday that in a phone interview in 1997, Trump called then-wife Marla Maples' family "an entourage of dumb Southerners." Trump also reportedly compared them to characters from The Beverly Hillbillies and put on an accent while doing a demeaning impression of Maples' mother. Maples grew up in Georgia.
Earlier this week, Trump flatly denied ever calling Sessions a "dumb Southerner," writing on Twitter that "being a Southerner is a GREAT thing." Woodward also reported that Trump called Sessions "mentally retarded" — another phrase the president denied having ever used, even though he is on tape doing so on The Howard Stern Show, per The Washington Post.
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This new account from MacIntosh also comes hours after Trump claimed on Twitter that the quotes in Woodward's book are made up. "I don’t talk the way I am quoted," he wrote. "If I did I would not have been elected president."
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