Maggie Haberman Explains Trump’s ‘Casual Racism and Homophobia’: Decades Ago ‘He Came to See Hate as a Civic Good’
New York Times senior political reporter and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said her book explains former President Donald Trump’s “casual racism and homophobia” in that decades ago he “came to see hate as a civic good.”
CNN co-anchor Brianna Keilar asked Haberman on New Day about her own book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, reporting on the “sort of casual racism and homophobia and instances even where Donald Trump assumes people of color are there for a certain role when they are not.”
Haberman said that “one of the throughlines of the book … is a look at a life and it is a look at how we got to this moment in our country. How Donald Trump ended up in the White House and what he exported from New York City to national politics which continues to this day. And so that is the point of all of this reporting.
“It’s also the point of the reporting about the casual homophobia, the casual racism which we got to see over and over again when he was president. It also existed behind closed doors, it also existed decades earlier.”
According to Haberman’s book, Trump made homophobic and transphobic comments and surmised the sexuality of his staffers before and when he was president. The Daily Beast first reported on these comments last week.
In a meeting during his presidency, Trump said that Jason Miller, a senior adviser for his 2020 campaign, “likes the ladies.”
“You know how sometimes someone turns out to be gay later, and you knew? This guy, he isn’t even like one percent gay,” said Trump, according to Haberman.
Trump’s racism was on display on Friday when the former president attacked Elaine Chao, who served as his Transportation Secretary and is the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“Is McConnell approving all of these Trillions of Dollars worth of Democrat sponsored Bills, without even the slightest bit of negotiation, because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to them, or is he doing it because he believes in the Fake and Highly Destructive Green New Deal, and is willing to take the Country down with him? In any event, either reason is unacceptable. He has a DEATH WISH. Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!” he posted on his social media site, TRUTH Social.
Watch above via CNN.
