Maggie Haberman Proclaims Trump Is Going to Get Even MORE Racist Than He Already Was: ‘He’s Leaning Into It Pretty Aggressively’

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman told CNN’s Don Lemon that former President Donald Trump‘s pattern of racist attacks only figures to get worse, noting that Trump is “leaning into it pretty aggressively.”

Haberman has been making the rounds to promote the release of her controversial but much-buzzed-about book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight, Lemon asked Haberman about Trump’s racist attack on former cabinet member Elaine Chao. He asked if we are “going to see more of this,” and Haberman — without hesitation — predicted Trump will escalate:

LEMON: Over the weekend, Trump made a racist attack, as you know, against his former cabinet member, cabinet official Elaine Chao, calling her Coco Chow. Are we going to see more of this, you think?

HABERMAN: I think so. He’s leaning into it pretty aggressively. He has been much more since he left office. He was doing things like this in office as we know, but he seems to be leaning into racist statements.

There was also a veiled threat against Mitch McConnell. Not so veiled in that social media post where he said, McConnell has a death wish. Now his backers would say, no, no, he meant political.

There’s just no justification for doing something like that after January 6th, 2021 because it’s very clear the impact his words have on his supporters. So, I do think that we are seeing everything that he sort of, hinted at or leaned into or just wouldn’t disavow and left something open during the course of the first campaign in 2016. And then the presidency and the 2020 campaign, I think you are going to see much more overtly now.

LEMON: Yes, listen, I know the answer to what you’re going to say, but I think it’s backed up by the evidence, you know, and I said, I went on the air and said the former president of the United States, I mean, I said the president of the United States at the time was racist.

And then I gave the evidence of why I thought he was racist. And there were many who said, I can’t believe you’re saying that about the president and others who were saying, finally, I can’t, you know, I can’t believe you didn’t say this sooner. Do you believe that he’s racist?

HABERMAN: I’ve gotten this question a lot in the last couple of days. I think that he has made a series of racist statements over a very long period of time, and he has incorporated racial paranoia into his public persona and his political persona for decades now.

There were — there were pieces of information that I learned during the course of reporting on this book. One was what you just read. Others related to Kara Young who was a biracial model who he dated in the 1990s. You know, it’s at a certain point, you know, his backers will say, no, no, no. He’s being misunderstood. How many times is someone misunderstanding him?

Watch above via CNN.