CNN’s Jake Tapper and Maggie Haberman Roast Trump and Alina Habba Over Disastrous Defamation Trial

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman roasted ex-President Donald Trump and attorney Alina Habba for losing a “winnable” defamation case to E. Jean Carroll.

On Monday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Haberman joined Tapper to discuss what is shaping up to be a very eventful week for Trump in the courts.

But Tapper hit the rewind button for a few minutes by asking Haberman for her insights into the decisions that contributed to the bombshell defamation loss, including the hiring of Habba instead of a “seasoned” team, and Trump’s inability to behave as a “normal person” would in court:

JAKE TAPPER: TAPPER: So, can I ask a question about the E. Jean Carroll case, because this is always so strange to me. It seemed to me, just as a legal perspective, I’m not talking about the truth of what happened, I wasn’t there, but it seems to me from a legal perspective that case was winnable for him, but he didn’t try to pursue it, right, and he didn’t participate, he wasn’t there. He had Alina Habba as his attorney not exactly who I would want representing me for anything. Why?

HABERMAN: I think a few reasons, but you are correct, there are a lot of people who argue, at least the first case. I don’t think the second case —

TAPPER: No, no, but whether or not you were actually quote, unquote “guilty” I mean, in the civil case.

HABERMAN: Well, but again, there were two separate cases. So, one was defamation and sexual abuse, the other was just defamation.

TAPPER: Right.

HABERMAN: Once you had the rulings in the first, you were going to get a defamation —

TAPPER: Right. A hundred percent defamation, but I’m talking about —

HABERMAN: The first one.

TAPPER: — the abuse.

HABERMAN: Yes. Yeah. No, that one some lawyers have made the point to me privately and I’ve seen some people say it publicly that that was winnable, that he had approached it differently, if he had, you know, a seasoned trial team —

TAPPER: Right.

HABERMAN: — which is not what he ended up with. At least initially he did ended up later with Joe Tacopina, but that was late in the process. And if he had shown up himself, to your point, it might have made a difference. I’m not convinced him showing up Jake would have made a difference just based on his behavior in the courtroom that I saw when he was in the second trial.

TAPPER: Sure, he was rude, but what if he enacted like a normal human being?

HABERMAN: I — okay, and — and what if he was an entirely different human being who didn’t view these things the way he does, right, so.

TAPPER: But if he is — but if, like, when a policeman pulls you over, not like you’ve ever been pulled over, when a policeman pulls me over, I am polite.

HABERMAN: Appreciate that, thank you.

TAPPER: I am polite, you know, when I get pulled over for speeding or whatever. I am polite to the police officer, and that is how you treat people in law enforcement.

HABERMAN: I think that Trump has a very different view of how he can behave in certain proceedings, having been president, and frankly, he tended to view those things, you know, he has viewed official proceedings as either something that you sort of deal with through a phone call from one party to another, or if you end up in that situation, there’s a lot of showmanship. And I’m not sure what’s showing up necessarily would have helped him with.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.

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