Kathie Lee Gifford is talking out about how President Donald Trump saved her and her new child daughter from a harmful stalker.
Throughout a current interview on “The Sage Steele Show,” the 71-year-old TV character turned emotional as she recalled the incident 31 years in the past.
Gifford mentioned she and her child daughter Cassidy had been on their strategy to Atlantic Metropolis, the place Gifford was to host the “Miss America” pageant, when her late husband, Frank Gifford, was notified she had obtained a dying menace.
“The FBI called my husband, and they said, ‘Mr. Gifford, we have a problem. There’s this guy. This is a very, very bad human being. [He] was a psychopathic murderer — a rapist and murderer. And he’s coming to get your wife,” she shared.
The previous “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee” host instructed Steele she had simply given beginning to Cassidy six weeks earlier.
Gifford, alongside together with her child daughter and a nanny, had been about to depart in a van to drive three hours to Atlantic Metropolis when Frank obtained the decision from the FBI.
She recounted how the FBI requested Frank for the household to proceed with their unique plans so that they wouldn’t tip off the suspect.
“They said, ‘We would like you, Mr. Gifford, to just keep your schedule and have your wife keep her schedule, because this guy, we don’t want him to know that we’re on to him,’” Gifford mentioned.
Gifford mentioned the FBI knowledgeable Frank the person had “raped and tortured” his personal aunt.
She defined that the person’s aunt had managed to flee lengthy sufficient to name the police.
“I never heard it until just the other day. Somebody told me how she finally got away from [him],” Gifford mentioned. “He left. He stole her keys and told her, ‘Now I’m going to go after Kathie Lee.’”
The Daytime Emmy Award winner recalled that Frank instructed the FBI he wouldn’t comply with its request that he and Gifford maintain their typical schedules till he made one name.
“And he called Donald,” she mentioned.
Gifford defined that she all the time stayed on the Trump Plaza and On line casino when she was in Atlantic Metropolis, which made it simple for the person to know her location.
“Frank called Donald and said, “Donald, we’ve got this situation,’” Gifford recalled.
“And this is why I will love this man for my whole life,” she mentioned of Trump as she teared up. “He said, ‘Frank, don’t you worry about it. I’ve got your girls. I’ve got your girls. And don’t you worry.’”
“And so Frank called back the FBI and said, ‘I called Donald Trump. He says he’s going to take care of my wife and my daughter.’”
Gifford mentioned, on the time, she “didn’t know anything” concerning the menace and was stunned when she obtained a name from Trump, who instructed her that he was sending his helicopter to take her to his lodge.
She later realized the true property mogul was defending her by having her use a special and safer mode of transportation to her vacation spot.
Gifford was additionally confused since Trump had give you a canopy story to clarify why he was making the gesture.
“I said, ‘Donald, why? He said, “Because you’ve had a baby.’ I said, ‘Donald, women have babies every day. It’s no big deal. Thank you. But it’s no big deal.’ And he goes, ‘No, congratulations. So happy for you … [I’m] sending my helicopter for you and your baby and your nanny,’” she recalled.
Gifford recalled that she tried to speak him out of it, however Trump was adamant. “The next day, he sent his helicopter.”
Along with sending his helicopter, Gifford mentioned, she was greeted by 4 members of Trump’s safety workforce when she arrived in Atlantic Metropolis.
“I mean, these guys are major, major, and they’re like, ‘Mrs. Gifford, Mr. Trump wants you to know that we’re here for you,’” Gifford mentioned. “I didn’t know what they were talking about.”
Gifford mentioned that since she had simply given beginning and had “all kinds of stuff going on,” she didn’t inquire additional about why Trump had despatched his safety to guard her.
The “Then Came You” actress mentioned she thanked the safety guards and “never thought anything about it.”
Nonetheless, she recalled that they protected her all week main as much as the pageant, and extra members joined her safety element each day.
On the day of the pageant, Gifford had some free time, so she headed all the way down to the foyer.
She recalled being bewildered why a safety guard had been stationed outdoors her lodge room all week.
“I just never thought about it, you know?” she mentioned. “I just … stupid. But he never said a word. Nobody said a word to me.”
After she arrived on the foyer, Gifford was shocked when she noticed a newspaper with a headline about her dying menace.
She contacted the organizers of the pageant, who requested her if she had reconsidered internet hosting and performing on the occasion as a result of menace.
“I said, ‘Hell, no,’” she recalled. “No person’s going to make me afraid.
“And then I understood everything,” she mentioned. “I understood what Donald had done. I understood what Frank had done to try to say, you know, not be afraid and all of that.”
Gifford mentioned she went to the pageant after which was taken dwelling by a special route.
She later realized that an FBI officer had been guarding her son Cody, who was 3 years outdated, at her dwelling in Connecticut.
Gifford mentioned the next day, she and Cody went to a movie show, the place she was knowledgeable by the FBI, which had been guarding her, that the person had been caught.
“In the middle of the movie, one of the FBI guys comes over and goes, ‘Mrs. Gifford, we got this son of a b—-,’” she recalled, “I said, ‘Thank you so much.’”
In the beginning of the episode, Gifford defined she had beforehand not often shared the story of how Trump helped her as a result of the late Rev. Billy Graham had warned her way back to remain out of politics.
“He mentioned, ‘Just tell people that God loves them,” Gifford recalled of Graham’s recommendation. “And all these years, that’s what I’ve finished. You’ve by no means heard me say a factor about politics — ever.
“And now I’m ready to,” she mentioned. “I’m ready to now because, first of all, Billy’s gone. I saw him right before he died.”
The well-known evangelist died of pure causes on the age of 99 in 2018.
Gifford mentioned she knew Graham would perceive why she needed to be “very honest” now and converse out about how Trump had saved her.
Nonetheless, she defined that she nonetheless “hates politics” and dislikes a few of Trump’s rhetoric.
“I would cringe at times. I would go, ’Donald no, no,’” she mentioned. “That’s not the person I knew, you recognize? However the story I simply instructed you is the person I do know.
“That’s my friend Donald,” Gifford mentioned. “Saved my life. Saved my daughter’s life. And if I called him today, [he] would save it again.”
