Maggie Haberman Asked About Confronting Trump At Presser — Says She Was ‘Struck By’ Trump Response
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman told Kaitlan Collins she was “struck by” former President Donald Trump’s answer when she confronted him at a press conference this week.
Monday was a mixed day for Trump as the hearing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case resulted in a denial of Trump’s attempts to delay the trial, but during the hearing the New York appeals court ruled he could have an additional ten days to post a reduced amount of $175 million to proceed with his appeal of the $460 million-plus fraud judgment hanging over his head.
Haberman was a guest on Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, during which Collins asked her about confronting Trump at a post-court press conference at 40 Wall Street:
COLLINS: And afterward, he went to 40 Wall Street, one of the properties that could have been seized, potentially, by the Attorney General, in the other case, the civil fraud case.
He held a press conference. And you asked him a question. And this is how he answered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: Do you think you should get an — can you get an acquittal in this trial, in the Merchan trial?
TRUMP: Well I shouldn’t have a trial. This is not a trial. This is not an act of criminality.
HABERMAN: But you are having one, so do you–
TRUMP: I don’t know if we’re having one. We’re going to be appealing, right now. I can tell you that. We did nothing wrong, just like I did nothing wrong in the other case. My statements, my financial statements were conservative. They were low, not high. I mean, he valued Mar-a-Lago at a tiny fraction of what it is.
He made Mar-a-Lago, you know it very well, Maggie, he made Mar-a-Lago into $18 million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I mean, you were asking about this case.
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: But he’s pivoted, very quickly, to talking about — even though his bond was cut, in less than half, still bothered by that, clearly.
HABERMAN: Well, I would actually say two things.
I think that it was the one thing that he could treat like a success. So, he tried to push it that way, number one. But number two — and that’s, I think, how he was treating it throughout the day.
But number two, I asked him about, does he think he can get an acquittal because, as you noted, he said, at some point during this conversation with reporters, this is a scam, you know, this trial is a scam, so this will help me. These charges are a scam, it’ll help me with voters.
Well, if you think that? Then, I don’t know why you wouldn’t expect an acquittal, and just want to get through this. So, I was struck by his avoiding the answer.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
