CNN’s Jake Tapper and Maggie Haberman Roast Trump For ‘Running a Basement Campaign’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper and New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman roasted ex-President Donald Trump over his lighter campaign schedule, turning his “basement campaign” insult against him.
Trump and his supporters taunted President Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign as running a “basement campaign” while he was observing Covid precautions.
On Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper pointed out that those same taunts could as easily apply to Trump’s lighter schedule this time around, and both noted factors like Trump’s age:
TAPPER: Last question. Donald Trump has clearly been campaigning something of a basement campaign, something of the kind of campaign that Joe Biden did in 2020. A lot of Republicans made fun of them. They talked about Donald Trump was out there doing six, seven events a day, Joe Biden was doing maybe one. Donald Trump’s not even doing one campaign event a day, he might be doing two or three a week.
Obviously, he’s 77. Obviously, he’s far and ahead the front runner, he doesn’t need to do it. At what point do you think the pride that he feels about the fact that he used to be so vigorous and able to do this and it’s pretty apparent that he doesn’t seem capable of doing it anymore, at least there’s no evidence that he can do it anymore that that’s going to cause him to try to get back into that old routine.
HABERMAN: Among other things he’s not doing rallies, yes, he is older, yes, he is far ahead, they also cost a lot of money, and so they don’t see the reason to spend campaign resources when they don’t have to. I don’t think that that is proving himself in that way as a top of mind concern for him, especially if as they hope Iowa delivers him a sizable victory on January 15. Remember, it’s a state that he lost —
TAPPER: Right.
HABERMAN: — in 2016.
TAPPER: To Ted Cruz.
HABERMAN: He is so much more focused on the legal cases than on specifically the political campaign on balance right now, and specifically the case we haven’t talked about, the New York attorney general case, because that involves his business and that involves the extent to which he is going to be able to continue to run his business as is. And we will know the details of that outcome in January. He will appeal whatever that is, and that’s going to go on for a while. But that case cuts at the heart of his identity and who he is. It is just fundamentally different than anything else we’re talking about.
Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.
