Lesley Stahl: Trump Said He Wants to ‘Discredit’ the Media ‘So No One Will Believe’ Negative Stories (Video)

The veteran “60 Minutes” anchor raised eyebrows after she made the remarks at the annual Deadline Club awards dinner on Monday

“60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl raised some eyebrows at the annual Deadline Club Awards dinner on Monday, telling PBS anchor Judy Woodruff that President Donald Trump once admitted to her that his whole rationale for attacking the media was to help him deflect bad press.

“He said, ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you,’” Stahl said. “He said that. So put that in your head for a minute.”

Stahl said the moment occurred at his office in Manhattan’s Trump Tower a few months before the billionaire won the 2016 presidential election.

“I met with him in Trump Tower and he really is the same off camera that he is on camera, exactly the same, at one point he started to attack the press,” said Stahl. “He’s attacking the press, there were no cameras, there was nothing going on and I say, ‘You know that is getting tired. Why are you doing this? You’re doing it over and over it’s boring.’”

The remarks were met with stunned silence and even Woodruff, a longtime reporting veteran, seemed taken aback.

“We’re all absorbing what you just said,” she said, visibly shaking her head in disapproval.

Stahl was known to have a close relationship with the real estate developer and spoke to him frequently during an era when he granted interviews more freely.

Stahl and “60 Minutes” conducted Trump’s first interview as president-elect.

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