Maggie Haberman Flat-Out Calls BS On Trump Claims About His Win: ‘He Doesn’t Have An Historic Mandate’
CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman flat-out called BS on President-elect Donald Trump’s claims about his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, bluntly noting “He doesn’t have an historic mandate.”
Haberman was a guest on CNN’s special January 6 coverage after VP Harris completed her certification of the 2024 election results, during which anchor Anderson Cooper asked “Where is the former presidents head at” weeks before he takes office.
While Trump has been claiming a “historic mandate,” Haberman said “He doesn’t have an historic mandate” — but will test the limits of the “form of a mandate” that he does have:
ANDERSON COOPER: Maggie, what are the expectations Trump — the president-elect just said on January 6th that he denied Joe Biden. He had the transition and now will have the transition that he denied Joe Biden.
Where is the former presidents head at now as he prepares for taking take office?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Look, he continues to try to say he has a historic mandate. He doesn’t have an historic mandate, Anderson. But he certainly does have a form of a mandate. He, you know, won the popular vote, the first Republican to do it in 20 years.
I think that he is going to focus on a series of day-one actions and I think we’re going to see them, you know, seeking to essentially swamp the system, for lack of a better way of putting it, and you know, just overwhelm the system.
And I think you will see a lot of that on immigration. I think you will see a lot on a number of other campaign promises.
The one that is unclear, Anderson, is, what does Trump do about these pardons that he said he was going to do or suggested he is likely to do for some of the people arrested in connection with the January 6th attack by a pro Trump mob during the certification of his successor’s election?
Now, it’s one thing that people didn’t vote with January 6th and Trump’s lies about the election as their guidepost. But it’s entirely different than to try to test the system and see what people will tolerate with these pardons.
There’s not a huge appetite for them nationally. So we will see what that looks like.
COOPER: Yes. I mean, he’s called them hostages repeatedly on the campaign trail, you know, playing records of them singing the national anthem. How broad do you think those pardons might be?
HABERMAN: I think there is a debate within Trump’s world about what exactly to do.
And to that pardon, I think the point that the officer was making is that Trump ran as a pro-law enforcement candidate but these were officers in a number of cases who we’re injured. And these were officers who were guarding against Trump supporters, guarding this building.
This is a complicated bit of messaging for Trump. And you know, it is going to be interesting to see who he decides, if he ultimately does go ahead with what he said he wants to do, who he decides is worthy of the clemency grant here.
