Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was ‘a loser’

President Trump on Tuesday denied telling Andrew McCabe that his wife was “a loser,” the latest barb in the ongoing spat with the former FBI deputy director.

“I never said anything bad about Andrew McCabe’s wife other than she (they) should not have taken large amounts of campaign money from a Crooked Hillary source when Clinton was under investigation by the FBI,” Trump tweeted.

“I never called his wife a loser to him,” he added, calling it “another McCabe made up lie.”

I never said anything bad about Andrew McCabe’s wife other than she (they) should not have taken large amounts of campaign money from a Crooked Hillary source when Clinton was under investigation by the FBI. I never called his wife a loser to him (another McCabe made up lie)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

{mosads}McCabe wrote in his new book, “The Threat,” that the president asked him about Jill McCabe, ran an unsuccessful bid for the Virginia state Senate in 2015, during a conversation after the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

McCabe, who served as acting FBI director after Comey’s ouster, wrote that he told the president it’s “tough to lose anything,” but that his wife had rededicated herself to her career.

“He replied in a tone that sounded like a sneer,” McCabe wrote, according to an excerpt in The Atlantic. “He said, ‘Yeah, that must’ve been really tough. To lose. To be a loser.’ “

The exchange was first reported by NBC News in January 2018. An attorney for Trump denied at the time that the president had called Jill McCabe a loser.

McCabe was fired last year after an internal report found he was not forthcoming with investigators. After his firing, he alleged that Trump had repeatedly made light of his wife’s unsuccessful campaign, calling it a “mistake” or referring to his wife a “loser.”

Trump and other Republicans have seized on nearly $500,000 in donations Jill McCabe received during her campaign from then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a former Democratic National Committee chairman who is a close ally of Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

They pointed to the donations in questioning Andrew McCabe’s role in leading the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, arguing that it indicated bias within the bureau.

McCabe during a media blitz ahead of the release of his book has defended his tenure and spoken about the bureau’s decision to launch a counterintelligence investigation over the president’s ties to Russia.

Trump has hammered McCabe over his media appearances and book, calling him “disgraced” and a liar.