‘Striking’: Maggie Haberman Torches Trump ‘Very Very Fascist-Invoking’ Vermin Speech — Says He’s Getting Worse
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman torched former President Donald Trump’s “vermin” remarks, telling CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins the terminology was a “striking” addition to Trump’s “very, very fascist-invoking” repertoire.
Trump is under fire for a passage in his Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire that many — including President Joe Biden’s senior advisers — see as echoing the likes of Adolf Hitler.
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within,” Trump said.
On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman added her voice to those calling out the chilling origins of Trump’s commentary, and she and Collins called BS on the Trump campaign’s attempt to spin the remarks:
COLLINS: You’ve covered Donald Trump for a long time. You wrote a book on him. What did you make of the comments, in New Hampshire, on Saturday night?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What was striking to me was actually not him reading from the prompter, about enemies within, because he actually has said that before. But “Vermin” was new.
And the dehumanizing language that he is increasingly willing to use, “poisoning the blood of the country,” I should note, also has echoes of fascists. And that is a new piece that he has added, to his repertoire, about immigrants.
So, I think the language, which has been, very, very, fascist- invoking, or at least echoes of fascists, in history, for a long time, has become much more dramatic, and much more severe, in recent weeks. And to your point, he’s not hiding any of it.
What’s striking to me too is when his campaign tries to insist, he’s not really saying what he’s saying. So, as you note, they push back on what he said. But they push back on it with a quote that, talks about crushing his opponents. And I can see where they think they’re being clever, and that they’re suggesting this as some kind of a liberal troll. That’s not what they said.
COLLINS: Yes. They said crush “their entire existence” —
HABERMAN: Existence, exactly.
COLLINS: — with Steven Cheung, the spokesperson later said, that’s not what he meant to say. But it was something that he typed out —
HABERMAN: That is what he said.
COLLINS: — and sent to reporters.
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: And it’s something that Trump said, on camera.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
