Maggie Haberman Says Jan. 6 Hearing Was ‘Pretty Astonishing’ But Whether It Changes Minds is ‘An Open Question’

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said the January 6 hearings have made a “pretty astonishing” case against former President Donald Trump, even if its ability to change anyone’s mind is “an open question.”

Haberman was among the millions who were transfixed by Thursday night’s primetime hearing of the January 6 committee, as witnesses and video clips told the harrowing, outrageous, and occasionally comical tale of the 187 minutes between the start of the riot and Trump’s tepid effort at calling it off — and beyond.

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, Haberman joined co-anchors John Berman and Kaitlan Collins to give her analysis of the hearings thus far.

Collins noted that committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney stressed that Trump “is not someone who has gone away from political life. He is the frontrunner for the Republican Party for 2024.”

Haberman agreed, and detailed “warning signs” she’d seen, such as Trump’s effort to promote the idea he would be “reinstated” in 2021:

I reported last year that Donald Trump was telling people that he expected to be reinstated in August. This was a theory with absolutely no basis in reality that was being pushed by an ally, Mike Lindell. And he was, Trump was trying to encourage people to echo it. That was the first warning sign. This was not going away. In addition to his public statements, he has continued, he has continued trying to pressure officials in Wisconsin to decertify the election. He has continued to spread baseless lies about, you know, the sanctity of the vote and whether there was widespread fraud. And he will, I expect, continue to do that. So I do think you saw Cheney try to dramatize, saying this is not just the past. This is this moment we are living in in the present. Whether this gets through to anyone and changes their minds, I think is an open question, Kaitlan. But that hearing was pretty astonishing in terms of the case it laid out.

Berman then asked Haberman who was Cheney directing the question to when she asked “Can a president who was willing to make the choice Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority to our great nation again?”

“Is she posing that to the Justice Department? Is that for Merrick Garland? Is that for voters? Is that members of Congress to do something? To whom is she addressing that, Maggie?” Berman asked.

“I think she’s addressing it to all of the above,” and went on to add that “it is going to take, I think, in her mind, multiple avenues for people to address what she sees as an existential threat posed by Donald Trump. ”

Watch above via CNN.