Maggie Haberman Says Trump Has Biden-Esque ‘Disconnect’ With Voters

Longtime Trump beat reporter Maggie Haberman pointed to one “similarity” between messaging by the current administration and former President Joe Biden’s administration when it came to the economy: “disconnect.”

The remarks came when Haberman appeared on CNN Friday, hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April, down from the 180,000 jobs created in March, but reportedly higher than economists’ expectations.

At the beginning of the segment, however, host Kasie Hunt kicked off the interview by mocking viral comments made by President Donald Trump’s economic advisor Kevin Hassett on Fox Business earlier in the week.

Hassett was widely roasted online and by political pundits for insisting the economy was in great shape and pointing out that credit card spending is “through the roof” as proof.

“I was trying to figure out, are we in the Trump administration or the Biden administration?” Hunt jibed. “Because there was a heck of a lot during the Biden administration of attempts to take numbers that looked rosy and convince people that their lives were fine. They didn’t buy it then, do you think they’re going to buy it now?”

Haberman replied: “I agree with you that, yes, certainly there has been a similarity in terms of how President Biden and how President Trump have handled how voters feel about their own personal economic situations.”

“I think that’s different than the job numbers. This was a good jobs report for this White House, and there’s no question about it. And it’s certainly welcome news for them,” she continued. “There were good jobs reports in the Biden administration, too, and what would be very frustrating for President Biden was that voters did not feel that. That didn’t impact their lives, necessarily.”

She added: “That is also true with President Trump. He is showing some of the same issues in terms of sounding as if he understands what people are going through, as if he wants to focus on what people are dealing with in their own lives. And so there is that disconnect.”

“Jobs are obviously a positive thing,” Haberman said, “but if people are paying $5 gas – I passed one gas station today where it was almost $6 in the Washington area – that’s potentially much more problematic. It depends where it is in a few months, if things turn around, if the war in Iran, even though I know they’re not calling it a war anymore, starts to scale back, energy prices come down, that will obviously help the party and help the president and the White House with his numbers.”

“But there’s a gap there,” she concluded. “And it’s a sour electorate.”

Watch above via CNN

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