Maggie Haberman Says Trump ‘Clearly Targeting People’ He Sees ‘As Enemies’ In First Days Of New Term

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that President Donald Trump is “clearly targeting people” he sees as enemies — but said “time will tell” if Trump seeks retribution against others.

In an interview on Fox News Channel’s Hannity, Trump hinted that former President Joe Biden should be targeted, noting “he didn’t give himself a pardon” and repeatedly suggesting to Sean Hannity that an investigation into Biden and others is warranted.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Haberman joined Tapper to discuss the first week of Trump’s second term, including his long-promised threats of retribution.

After playing a bit of that Hannity interview, Tapper asked how Trump’s anger will “motivate what Trump does in his term” — and Haberman pointed out he’s already taking “some form of retribution”:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Fact check: true. He did win.

We’re back with the politics lead. President Trump there talking about his last four years of legal drama. He’s charged in multiple criminal cases in New York, Georgia, two federal cases from the Department of Justice. But most of the most serious cases were essentially canceled. And then he wasn’t punished for the Alvin Bragg case involving hush money cover up.

Let’s bring in Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for “The New York Times”, author of the book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”.

And let’s start there. Trump did ultimately emerge punishment free. That’s not to say guilt free, but punishment free. And he’s clearly very upset that so much of the last four years were caught up in these legal entanglements.

How much do you think that’s going to motivate what Trump does in his term?

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Look, Jake, time will tell. You know, he spent a number of months in the lead up to Election Day insisting that success would be his retribution, after initially suggesting retribution would be retribution and at various points, posting on his social media website suggesting various people should be punished or jailed or so forth.

We won’t know until time goes on. So far, he is taking pretty aggressive moves that are clearly targeting people who he perceives as enemies, even if it doesn’t relate to the investigations he was just talking about. But for instance, stripping the protective security details from Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and another aide at the State Department. Those are, you know, hard not to see, as, you know, some form of retribution.

But we won’t know for a bit. He is clearly, as you say, very angry. And he is signaling that he believes somebody should pay.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.