Maggie Haberman Bluntly Reminds CNN Viewers Trump ‘Left Office In Disgrace’ After J6 Attack ‘By A Pro-trump Mob’
CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman reminded viewers of President-elect Donald Trump’s exit from his first term with harsh but deadpan bluntness as she discussed the transition underway now.
Haberman is rightly considered an expert on Trump with deep experience reporting on him and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights. She’s also deeply inside his head, and is as likely to get a surprise phone call from Trump as she is to be on the receiving end of a bitter attack.
On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Haberman dropped in the aside that Trump is certain to notice as she assessed the contrast between the 2017 transition and the new model:
BERMAN: Maggie, you brought up Trump not being a fan necessarily, of Washington, DC as a city. You know, this transition has been really all in Mar-a-Lago. The last transition was in Mar-a-Lago. It was in New York, it was in Bedminster. What do you think that move back to Washington just as a place is going to be like for him?
HABERMAN: It’s a great question, John. I mean, look, I think as a place it will be interesting to see how he integrates in the city. Not that a sitting president ever spends a lot of time hanging around downtown Washington, but Trump used to, as one of his escapes from the White House and you know, we have seen lots of presidents leave the White House. President Biden has spent extensive time outside of the White House, as we know, in Delaware.
[20:25:21]
In Trump’s case, he used to own this hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, or at least it, I should say, from the government and refurbished it, that has been sold. They don’t have that place anymore. They don’t run that hotel so I don’t know what his recreational space in Washington would be. But in terms of the city, he is coming back to a city that he has changed. He has bent Congress to his will in a pretty dramatic fashion.
He started doing that during his time in office last time he has continued doing it since he left office in disgrace after the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
And so, what that ends up looking like when he returns is an open question. I will say, John, the transition being in Mar-a-Lago as opposed to in New York and half New York, half Washington, like last time, means that it exists in a little bit of a halcyon bubble of the sun is always shining literally and bad news doesn’t really enter.
It might make it a bit more of a jarring entry into DC than he might have had otherwise because it is — you know, it is looser, people can come up to him in a different way. We’ll see what it looks like.
Watch above via Anderson Cooper 360.
