JAKE TAPPER (HOST): The Washington Post on Friday reported that Donald Trump used to pass himself off as his own public relations agent either named John Barron or John Miller. I want you to listen to this 1991 recording of a People magazine reporter speaking with someone who claims to be, quote-unquote, “John Miller.”
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Now, are you seriously, is the campaign seriously claiming that that isn’t Mr. Trump?
PAUL MANAFORT: I could barely understand it. I couldn’t tell who it is. Donald Trump says it's not him, I believe it's not him.
TAPPER: In 1990 under oath he testified that he did use the name John Barron, and in 1991 he told People magazine that he did use the name John Miller. So this has already been admitted previously. I don't understand why now.
MANAFORT: I don't know those facts to be true or not. I just know that he said it's not him. I believe him. I don't even know the relevance of this, frankly, other than it's 25 years old, it's dealing with interests that People magazine were in, and they’re not focusing on issues that Trump is trying to talk about today, which are jobs, terrorism, immigration problems. These are the issues we should be talking about. Why the media is spending so much time going back 25 years old to talk about People magazine tape that may or may not be Trump. It’s totally irrelevant.
TAPPER: First of all, Mr. Trump brought up things that were 25 years old on behalf of Mr. Clinton, former President Clinton. But second of all, I think the issue is --
MANAFORT: But that was not People magazine. Those were issues that related to a core component of Hillary Clinton's strategy, which is that she's talking about breaking the ceiling for women, and yet she was an enabler and made the victims of those dalliances into a real bad situation.
TAPPER: My point is just that whether or not it took place in the '90s doesn’t seem to be an issue. But the larger issue, and I understand your point about jobs, and trade, and terrorism, issues that we talk about on CNN all the time, that I’ve talked to Mr. Trump about quite often, the issue is I think here you have a man in his 40s allegedly acting as his own public relations agent, bragging about his exploits with women while married to Ivana Trump, the mother of his three children, and speaks to a certain kind of character issue, don’t you think?
MANAFORT: But the tape has not proven it's him. The justification for the tape is words that are on that tape are words Donald Trump uses. I've been working for Donald Trump for six weeks. I'm using words he uses. I'm not the person on that tape. It has no basis in fact other than some allegation, and now they're even saying that he leaked the tape, that he had this tape for 25 years and he leaked the tape. It makes no sense.
TAPPER: Well, when you start saying, the construct I think you're looking for is tremendously successful, that’s the one he uses a lot in real life and that John Miller used in there.
