Maggie Haberman and Gayle King Warn Trump’s ‘Apocalyptic’ And ‘Dangerous’ Campaign Raises Threat Of Political Violence
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman agreed with CNN host Gayle King that former President Donald Trump has become increasingly dark and “apocalyptic,” raising concerns about the threat of “political violence.”
On this week’s edition of CNN’s King Charles, co-hosts Gayle King and Charles Barkley asked Haberman for her insights on Trump, beginning with his comments at a campaign rally Tuesday.
Haberman ticked through a laundry list of concerning Trump campaign features, and she and King raised the possibility of violence:
KING: We’ve got so much to talk to Maggie about but first, take a listen to what the former president said just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to put it all out because if we don’t win on November 5th, I think our country is going to cease to exist. It could be the last election we ever have. I actually mean that we don’t win, I think this could be the last election we ever have that’s where our country is going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Well, we all heard that Maggie — the rhetoric that he uses is so incendiary and he used phrases like bloodbath if I don’t win and then said he wasn’t talking about violence in the streets. He was talking about the economy. What do you make — you know, we’re 2024, the election is 2016, 2020. What makes this different in 2024?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: There’s a couple of things but you’re right about the rhetoric —
KING: Yes.
HABERMAN: — that it has become much more apocalyptic, I would say, over the last couple of years since he left office and it was already —
KING: It seems to be ramping up every single time.
HABERMAN: It has increased with these rallies over time and certainly in recent weeks. At the rally, you’re talking about where he said bloodbath.
KING: Yeah.
HABERMAN: He also saluted the people who rioted on January 6th —
KING: Yeah.
HABERMAN: — at the Capitol and that was very awesome Patriot —
KING: He calls them patriots.
HABERMAN: Right.
KING: And made clear he’s going to release them.
HABERMAN: Calls people hostages.
KING: And going to pardon them. Yeah.
HABERMAN: And so, I think that what is happening is a couple of things. I think that as he is running and he is facing the threat of losing his freedom. He is facing four indictments. There’s only one trial scheduled. It starts in a few weeks, but he is essentially running, you know in part for his freedom at minimum.
Some people think it’s more than that. Number one, number two, This is a rematch between two people who ran against each other four years ago and now both of them have a record. And so, that does actually make it different because with neither one of them is anything just a hypothetical. And we really haven’t seen that in decades in this country, a very, very long time.
But the way that the former president is characterizing this race and characterizing the country is really, really dark and it is —
KING: I think it’s dangerous.
HABERMAN: And well — and it’s and it’s striking a note for a lot of
his supporters Now, what we have seen over the last couple of years and — and we’ve talked about this a lot, is an increase in the threats of political violence. And I think that is a big open question about what we see in the next seven months or beyond.
Watch above via CNN’s King Charles.
