Early Thursday morning, Gawker received an anonymous email with an attachment that purported to contain recordings from Donald Trump?s voicemail inbox. Among the recordings were messages that appear to have been left for Trump by various celebrities?most notably, MSNBC?s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Tamron Hall.
While Gawker was unable to independently verify their authenticity, the recordings appear to be genuine. In addition to those from the MSNBC personalities, there were messages from people who either sounded like or identified themselves as longtime Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and boxing promoter Don King, all of whom spoke to Trump in a friendly and familiar manner.
Donald Trump?s primary rivals for the Republican nomination, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have both called on Trump to authorize The New York Times to release a transcript or recording of an interview he conducted with the newspaper, a portion of which was off the record. They think the recording will reveal that Trump is not the version of himself he presents to Republican voters?politically incorrect and unafraid of offending liberal elites?but in fact that the authentic Trump is a creature of elite Manhattan society, who counts among his personal friends many members of the decadent liberal media, and whose natural habitat is an Upper East Side cocktail party. As Cruz has put it, Trump has ?New York values.?
If authentic, these voicemails buttress that argument. They indicate that Trump maintains friendly personal relations with members of the elite political press, even as he demonizes them. While Trump and some of his journalistic interrogators play oppositional roles on the public stage, the voicemails suggest that they are in fact favor-trading pals when the cameras are off.
Though we could not determine the exact dates of the messages, several of them make references to the events of the 2012 presidential campaign season, including those left by a woman who identifies herself as ?T Hall.? Based on the content of her messages, and the voice of the caller, it seems to be MSNBC?s Tamron Hall (though obviously it is impossible to definitively identify her without confirmation from Hall or Trump). In one message, the caller says ?I?m on my way to Kentucky to cover the vice presidential debate,? a likely reference to the 2012 debate between Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney?s running mate at the time. Hall covered that debate from Kentucky for MSNBC.
The congenial tone of the messages to Trump stands in contrast with the aggressiveness with which Hall has covered his 2016 presidential run. On Sunday, Hall engaged Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson in a heated, lengthy exchange about the candidate?s refusal to disavow former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke?s support. ?There are those who believe here that someone got to Donald Trump and said, ?You need this vote. You need some of the angriest parts of this party to put you through,?? Hall said to Pierson.
Previously, Hall pressed Trump himself on the contradiction of identifying himself as a Christian while using words like ?pussy? to refer to his opponents. ?Who is the real Donald Trump? Is he the guy saying the P-word where he knows he can get away with it at this raucous rally? Or is he the guy thumpin? the Bible because he needs that group? And then will he be the guy later in a general election who becomes the New York liberal that Ted Cruz says you are really hiding under your suit?? she asked.
She might have added an additional option: The guy who who did a favor for Tamron Hall. In one of the voice messages, the caller cheerfully tells Trump that she was ?happy I took your advice? and met with someone named ?Matt.? The meeting went well, she said: ?I celebrated by going to Gucci, and I?m going to use your discount, because there?s a green dress that?s like $3,000, and I need a discount bigger than the one?my discount.?
A source familiar with the matter explains that Trump has a longstanding discount with Gucci. Trump is the landlord of the retailer?s store on Manhattan?s Fifth Avenue, in the Trump Tower?a fact he mentioned on Thursday, when he claimed, not for the first time, that he has a store that is ?worth more money than Mitt [Romney].?
During this campaign cycle, Scarborough and Brzezinski have faced intense criticism from the press for their apparent friendliness with Trump, whose campaign they have covered closely. After it was reported that the Morning Joe hosts visited Trump in his hotel room as the New Hampshire primary results were arriving, CNN reported that there was ?widespread discomfort? at NBC about the relationship. NBC and Scarborough have since denied any impropriety.
Less than a week later, Scarborough and Brzezinski conducted an extended ?town hall? interview with Trump, which was broadcast live on MSNBC. Audio which was apparently recorded during the event?s commercial breaks was subsequently leaked to the internet radio host Harry Shearer, who broadcasted a clip on his own show.
When the cameras weren?t rolling, the trio let down their guard. At one point, Brzezinski discussed the types of questions the hosts planned to ask in the next segment, and Trump responded, ?That?s right. Nothing too hard, Mika.? At another, he remarked that a segment from that day?s Morning Joe made him seem almost like a ?legendary figure.? It wasn?t until late last month, when Trump declined an opportunity to categorically disassociate himself from the Ku Klux Klan, that Scarborough finally attempted to distance himself from the candidate.
Trump consistently paints himself as an antagonist to the entire news media. His campaign has ejected several journalists from Trump events, has said that most members of the media are ?absolute dishonest, absolute scum,? and has pledged to ?open up our libel laws? to make it easier to sue reporters.
Employees of MSNBC, the closest thing the American left has to a counterpart to Fox News, would seem like his natural enemies. But on the recordings, voices that appear to belong to Hall, Scarborough, and Brzezinski are casual, chatty, even deferential to Trump. More than anything, they genuinely sound like his friends.
The voice mailbox also contains several messages from prominent figures who are not members of the media. In one message, a man who seems to be David Axelrod, the chief strategist of Barack Obama?s presidential campaigns, thanks Trump for a check. In November 2012, Trump donated money to Slash the Stache, an organization backed by Axelrod which sought to find a cure for epilepsy.
The caller who appeared to be Tom Brady, whose friendship with Trump is well-documented, opens one message with ?Donald, it?s your favorite quarterback.? He opens a second with, ?Hey big guy, it?s your favorite NFL quarterback calling.? (Don Yee, Brady?s agent, said his client did not recall leaving any voice messages for Trump and could not speak to the authenticity of the messages one way or the other.)
Someone identifying himself as the outspoken boxing promoter Don King also left multiple messages, addressing Trump as ?Big Don.? ?You?re a Republicrat, that is so great for America,? he said in one of the messages
All told, Gawker received 35 voicemail messages intended for Trump?many of which appear to have been left by strangers after Trump encouraged supporters to call his cell phone number?totaling 26 minutes and 40 seconds of audio. We are publishing three messages amounting to two minutes and 10 seconds.
Voicemails Reveal Donald Trumpâ??s Cozy Relationship With the Liberal Media