Trump asks Mulvaney to leave Oval Office for coughing during ABC interview
Media uproar over Trump's ABC interview
Says he might not call FBI on foreign dirt.
President Trump was apparently so perturbed by his chief of staff coughing during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office last week, that he asked his staffer to leave the room, according to a transcript from the station.
Trump had been asked a question about his tax returns when someone off camera – identified as Mulvaney – reportedly begins coughing.
“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” Trump said Stephanopoulos amid apparent coughing before saying: “And let’s do that over, he’s coughing in the middle of my answer.”
“I don’t like that, you know, I don’t like that,” Trump reportedly said of Mulvaney’s coughing. “If you’re going to couch, please leave the room. You just can’t, you just can’t cough. Boy oh boy.”
“Your chief of staff,” Stephanopoulos reportedly clarified.
The interview, which was broadcast Sunday, proceeded with Trump saying although he wanted people to see his “phenomenal” financial statement, it’s “not up to me, it’s up to my lawyers.”