PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump vowed Saturday that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will not “flip” and cooperate against him in the special counsel investigation into his campaign’s connections to Russia, attacking a New York Times story as part of a “witch hunt” against him.
In several morning tweets, Trump also lashed out against the Times over its coverage of the investigation. He slammed Maggie Haberman, the lead reporter on a new story, and called a former aide quoted in the story as a “drunk/drugged up loser.”
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
The tweets were posted around the time Trump headed out of Mar-a-Lago, his winter resort where he has spent the entire week, for a trip to a nearby Trump golf property. It was the second day in a row the president spent at one of his own courses in South Florida.
Trump appeared to be angered by a front-page Times story Saturday that examined his relationship with Cohen, whose office was raided by federal authorities last week. The story cited other former Trump campaign aides, including Sam Nunberg and Roger Stone, as saying Trump has long treated Cohen abusively by insulting him and threatening to fire him.
The story suggested Cohen, who has said he paid off adult-film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep quiet her story of an affair with Trump years earlier, could decide to cooperate in the investigation if he faces criminal charges.
In an initial version of his tweetstorm, Trump misspelled Haberman’s last name. He claimed he does not speak with her, even though he has granted her several interviews since taking office and posed with her for a photo in the Oval Office. Trump has known Haberman for years since he was a private developer in New York. The Times’s communication department wrote on Twitter that the paper is “extremely proud” of Haberman and that it stands by the story.
A Times photographer, Tom Brenner, who was part of the press pool following Trump on Saturday morning, posted a photo on Twitter that appeared to show the president looking at a phone.
Barbara Bush was remembered at her funeral Saturday as a woman who represented the best of the World War II generation.
“Barbara Bush was the first lady of ‘the greatest generation,’” presidential historian Jon Meacham, a friend of the Bush family, said in a eulogy at the service in Texas that drew signatories from across the nation and around the world.
Meacham recalled the snowy-haired former first lady’s “long and consequential life,” not least her promotion of literacy and her devilish sense of humor.
“She was candid and comforting,” Meacham said, adding that she “kept everything and everyone together.”
Some 1,500 filled St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston for Saturday’s service. Barbara Bush, who died on Tuesday at the age of 92, had requested in her last wishes a modest funeral at the Gothic-style cathedral, where she and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, were devoted members for decades.
Mark Burns – Pool/Office of George H.W. Bush via Getty Images Former President George H. W. Bush looks at the casket with his daughter Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch during the visitation of former first lady Barbara Bush at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, April 20, 2018, in Houston, Texas.
Barbara Bush’s casket arrived Friday at St. Martin’s, the nation’s largest Episcopal church, where she lay in repose as the public was invited to pay respects from noon to midnight, according to the Geo. H. Lewis Sons Funeral Home in Houston.
The Rev. Russell Levenson Jr. and the Rev. Dr. Peter Cheney are co-officiants of Saturday’s service, which began at 11 a.m. local time. Barbara Bush’s son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will deliver a eulogy along with her longtime friend, Susan Baker, and historian Jon Meacham, according to a statement from the Bush family.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images, FILE Former First Lady Barbara Bush is interviewed for ‘The Presidents’ Gatekeepers’ project about the White House Chiefs of Staff at the Bush Library, Oct. 24, 2011 in College Station, Texas.
Four of the five living ex-presidents are attending Saturday’s funeral service, including former President Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea Clinton, is also in attendance.
Following the service, a funeral procession will bring Barbara Bush’s casket to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum near Texas AM University in College Station for a private service, where she will be buried in a family plot beside her daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3 in 1953. The Texas AM Corps of Cadets are expected to line Barbara Bush Avenue outside the library to pay tribute to the former first lady.
David J. Phillip/Pool via Reuters Attendees arrive at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church for funeral services for former first lady Barbara Bush, in Houston, April 21, 2018.David J. Phillip/AP First Lady Melania Trump arrives at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church for a funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, April 21, 2018, in Houston.
First lady Melania Trump is attending Saturday’s service “on behalf of the first family,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement. “To avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service, President Trump will not attend.”
Similarly, in 2016, then-President Obama did not attend the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan, while his wife did. Sitting presidents have rarely in recent decades gone to the funerals of former first ladies, according to FactCheck.org, a project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia.
Trump, who’s at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida for the weekend, extended his “thoughts and prayers” to the Bush family via Twitter and said he planned to watch Barbara Bush’s funeral service from the “Southern White House.”
Heading to the Southern White House to watch the Funeral Service of Barbara Bush. First Lady Melania has arrived in Houston to pay our respects. Will be a beautiful day!
AP This graphic shows milestones in life of former first lady Barbara Bush.
Barbara Bush served as first lady from 1989 to 1993. She died shortly after deciding to forgo further medical treatments for her failing health.
While delivering a eulogy at Saturday’s service, Meachum recalled a recent moment when Barbara Bush was in the hospital. She asked her doctor if he’d like to know why her eldest child, former President George W. Bush, “turned out the way he did,” according to the presidential historian.
“And then she announced, ‘I smoke and drank while I was pregnant,’” Meachum said amid loud laughter from the crowd of mourners inside St. Martin’s Episcopal.
David J. Phillip/AP Former Presidents George W. Bush, left, and George H.W. Bush arrive at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church for a funeral service for former first lady Barbara Bush, April 21, 2018, in Houston.
Former President George H.W. Bush is “broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years,” according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at the 93-year-old former president’s office.
“He held her hand all day today and was at her side when she left this good earth,” Becker said in a statement.
Pam Francis/Getty Images Former First Lady Barbara Bush poses for a portrait on Aug. 23, 2001 in Houston.
Former President George W. Bush described his mother as a “fabulous first lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions.”
“To us, she was so much more,” he said in a statement after her death. “Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end. I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
