President Trump’s attorney on Sunday pushed back on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s claims that the president called his wife a “loser.”
John Dowd told Axios that Trump “never made that statement according to two others who were present.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday for not being forthcoming with investigators during an inspector general review.
{mosads}Trump, who has personally attacked McCabe in the past, quickly praised that decision on Twitter, accusing McCabe of corrupt tactics and calling his firing a “great day for democracy.”
NBC News reported in January that Trump asked McCabe during a phone call why former FBI Director James Comey was allowed to fly on a FBI plane from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., after being fired.
McCabe told Trump that he hadn’t been asked about the flight but that he would have authorized it if he had, the network added.
Trump fell silent before lashing out at McCabe and telling him to ask his wife what it felt like to be a loser, according to NBC.
The FBI head reportedly replied, “OK, sir,” before Trump ended the call.
McCabe has spoken out since his firing. He recounted four occasions in which he said Trump called his wife’s failed 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign a “mistake” or “problem” and called his wife a “loser.”
He also argued that his ouster was driven by the Trump administration in an effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.