NY Times reporters stand by Trump story

A pair of New York Times journalists on Monday refused to back down from their article documenting Donald Trump’s past relationships with — and comments about — women.

“There’s no single dimension to Donald Trump and women,” Michael Barbaro said on CNN’s “At This Hour.” “I think our story makes that clear, and our story makes that clear through the voices of the people that we interviewed.”

{mosads}Megan Twohey, Barbaro’s co-author, added that Trump received adequate input on the story about his romantic and professional history with women.

“We spoke to Donald Trump for an hour and included his voice in our story and really value the time that we got to spend with him on the phone,” she said of the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. “If he wants to get back on the phone and chat more about his experiences with women, we’d welcome that.”

The New York Times published an article on its Sunday front page detailing Trump’s past interactions with women both publicly and privately. The centerpiece story said that he nurtured some women’s careers, putting them in important positions in his business, but also that he could be demeaning and crude, creating a “complex, at times contradictory portrait.”

Trump blasted the Times as a “failing” newspaper, adding that voters saw through its “lame hit piece” about him. He has tweeted multiple times Monday ripping the story.

And a woman who dated Trump on Monday said that the Times’s reporting had distorted her relationship with the billionaire.

“They told me and my manager several times that it would not be a hit piece and that my story would come across in the way I was telling it and accurately,” Rowanne Brewer Lane said on CNN.

“It absolutely did not. They spun it to where it appeared negative. I do not appreciate them making it look like it was a negative experience.”

Barbaro on Monday said that his article with Twohey had honestly depicted Lane’s companionship with Trump.

“We stand by our story,” he said. “We quoted her fairly and accurately. The story really speaks for itself.”