WATCH: Maggie Haberman Says Trump Lawyers ‘Are Correct’ On Politics of Biden Docs — But Warns Against ‘False Equivalence’
New York Times correspondent, best-selling author, and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman told CNN hosts that ex-President Donald Trump and his lawyers “are correct” about the “political problem” President Joe Biden’s classified documents issue presents for the Department of Justice — but cautioned against “false equivalence” with Trump’s matter.
Since the news broke Monday that President Biden’s lawyers discovered a small number of documents — from his time as VP — bearing classified marking while clearing out a private office last fall and immediately reported and returned the documents to the federal government, the topic has dominated the media cycle. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Biden aides discovered more such documents at a second location.
The Biden matter has drawn direct comparisons — particularly among conservatives — with the investigation that exploded onto the national radar with the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home. Others have raised concerns about the gap between its discovery and public revelation.
On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Haberman joined co-anchors Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins to discuss the developments, saying that while the Biden team handled things much better than Trump, she still has questions:
KAITLAN COLLINS: The White House is not saying a lot on this. They basically didn’t answer any question in detail yesterday. When you talk to White House officials privately, they say there is a reason behind that. They believe that they will be borne out in this and that they will not it will come out that it is very different, as you were noting. But Trump’s attorneys and his legal team in his orbit seem to think what you’re saying there, that this is actually going to help them, whether it’s muddying the waters or showing that it’s easier than you think to take classified documents with you.
MAGGIE HABERMAN: It’s very possible. Kaitlan. Look, I mean, I think that, number one, we know this is Donald Trump’s playbook, which is to muddy the waters. And so it’s not really surprising that that’s what’s taking place. Donald Trump and his folks also tend to think in terms of short-term increments. I do think that they are correct that this raises a political issue for the DOJ. I don’t know that it raises any other issue. I’ve heard the same thing you have, that Biden officials believe that this is going to ultimately play in their favor. But to your point, there’s so much we don’t know. And they have made the decision that not saying more about it up front is the right way to handle it. We’ll see. But there are, as Don noted, a ton of questions that we just don’t know the answer to. It is a false equivalence based on what we know so far, to say this is the same as Trump, but I’m not sure that most of the public is paying attention to such fine details.
DON LEMON: Is it odd? We were speaking to an expert here who said lawyers discovered it. Why are lawyers unpacking boxes? Does that raise a red flag or isn’t that interesting to anyone?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t. It goes…
DON LEMON: Do your lawyers like pack when you move?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: I don’t, my classified documents being gone through by lawyers. I don’t know what — that was a joke for those who are wondering. I don’t I don’t know what exactly the circumstance was here. I guess it is certainly possible that somebody was packing up something or going through something and they stumbled on this. I have more questions. I have fewer questions about a lawyer doing this than I do questions about what’s the second location where they found documents? When did that happen? How many? The volume so far as we understood it from the first set was roughly a dozen or so. That’s in vast contrast to the more than 300 that Donald Trump had. But the more that we hear of, you know, oh, here’s an additional one, will there be more? What were the circumstances? We just don’t know.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
