--- title: White House Not Denying Donald Trump, McCabe Conversation description: The White House did not deny a report that President Trump asked the Deputy FBI Director who he had voted for in the 2016 election. canonical: https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-24T20:34:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:00:17.781Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Not Denying Trump Asked McCabe Who He Voted for in 2016 og:description: "I wasn't in the room; I don't know what was discussed" og:url: https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef6f1aee41bd945a/6988f679db2987092625e392/andrew-mccabe-fbi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4726 og:image:height: 2658 og:image:alt: Andrew McCabe og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Not Denying Trump Asked McCabe Who He Voted for in 2016 twitter:description: "I wasn't in the room; I don't know what was discussed" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef6f1aee41bd945a/6988f679db2987092625e392/andrew-mccabe-fbi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Does Not Deny President Trump Asked Deputy FBI Director Who He Voted for in 2016 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jan 24, 2018 8:34 PM UTC  Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington. on June 7, 2017 Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington. on June 7, 2017 Alex Brandon—AP  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jan 24, 2018 8:34 PM UTC The White House did not deny a report that President Trump asked Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe who he had voted for in the 2016 election. “The President and Andrew McCabe have had limited and very non substantive conversations,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the daily briefing Wednesday. “I can’t get into the details of what was discussed. I wasn’t there.” “I wasn’t in the room,” she continued when pressed again. “I don’t know what was discussed. I know he didn’t ask me.” The Washington _Post,_ citing seven current and former officials, [reported Tuesday](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-asked-the-acting-fbi-director-whom-he-voted-for-during-oval-office-meeting/2018/01/23/2cb50818-0073-11e8-8acf-ad2991367d9d%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.aeeb0edcd202) that after President Trump had fired former FBI Director James Comey in May, he requested an Oval Office with McCabe, who had assumed the position of acting director. In that meeting, Trump asked McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election, according to the _Post_. McCabe reportedly responded that he did not vote, but Trump then told him he was angry that McCabe’s wife Jill had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations during her state senate bid from a political action committee that was run by Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia Governor and close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Trump has repeatedly singled out McCabe on Twitter for overseeing the investigation into Clinton’s private email server, and has expressed glee about reports of his imminent retirement—which Sanders mentioned again on Wednesday. “There are widespread reports of his retirement,” she said when asked about the conversation between Trump and McCabe. “We’re making sure that we’re focused on the FBI and DOJ serving all Americans fairly and efficiently and we’re going to move forward from there.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/"},"headline":"White House Does Not Deny President Trump Asked Deputy FBI Director Who He Voted for in 2016","datePublished":"2018-01-24T20:34:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:00:17.781Z","description":"\"I wasn't in the room; I don't know what was discussed\"","url":"https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef6f1aee41bd945a/6988f679db2987092625e392/andrew-mccabe-fbi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef6f1aee41bd945a/6988f679db2987092625e392/andrew-mccabe-fbi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Andrew McCabe","caption":"Andrew McCabe","creditText":"Alex Brandon—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5117200/white-house-andrew-mccabe-donald-trump-2016-election/","name":"White House Does Not Deny President Trump Asked Deputy FBI Director Who He Voted for in 2016"}}]}] ```