Katy Tur: Trump Tried to Pull Me Onstage To Wave Like ‘a Wife or Something’

Katy Tur: Trump Tried to Pull Me Onstage To Wave Like ‘a Wife or Something’

Of all the reporters with whom Donald Trump sparred during his campaign, a favorite target was NBC’s Katy Tur. Trump called Tur out by name more than once, as here and here.

So it was fascinating to hear Tur, appearing on today’s Morning Joe, report that Trump was very friendly to her behind the scenes. She described two anecdotes. In the first, said Tur, Trump tried to pull her up on the stage to wave to the crowd “as if I was his wife or something.”

She also described running into Trump on his Turnberry, Scotland golf course, and Trump introducing her to his corporate and golf executives as a “great reporter, She is wonderful. She’s the best reporter.” Tur said Trump eventually caught himself, adding “sometimes.”

KATY TUR: Even at the tensest moments between me and the campaign, reporting on leaks and reporting on holding him accountable for some of the things he said, behind the scenes when I would run into him he was overwhelmingly friendly, sometimes to a point where it took me aback.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: He tried to pull you up with family.

TUR: We were in Atlanta and I can’t remember what the exact report was but this was outside of Atlanta. Back in 2015. It’s early on. And they were upset at me about something, they weren’t really answering my phone calls too much. And Donald Trump comes out, he talks to the media. At that point he was talking to us all the time. He sees me in the crowd — a small crowd — and he tries to literally grab me and pull me up on stage essentially with him so he could introduce me to the waving crowd. I was thinking to myself: this is very weird, and uncomfortable. As if I was his wife or something, like wave! So there is a variety of —

. . .

This is a great story. Because we are in Scotland. It’s the day of the Brexit vote or the day after, the day before — I don’t know, one of the two. And he’s on his Scotland golf course, Turnberry, and I happen to stay on the golf course to do live shots. I’m the only reporter there. And lo and behold, Trump comes by on his golf cart with the Secret Service and with a number of his executives—Trump organization executives and his golf executives—and he sees me and he waves me over. He is like, “Katy, Katy Tur: great reporter. She is wonderful! She’s the best reporter. Everyone: meet Katy!” And then he caught himself: “sometimes.”

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