Maggie Haberman on Trump’s Criminal Referrals from J6 Committee: ‘Really Damning Day for Him’

New York Times’ Maggie Haberman managed her expectations for the January 6 Committee’s criminal referrals against Donald Trump, but she still called it a “really damning day” for the former president.

The Trump scribe and author of Confidence Man joined CNN This Morning on Tuesday to talk about the House committee’s vote to refer Trump to the Justice Department on charges of inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and obstruction of an official proceeding. The former president has gone on a Truth Social rampage over the referrals. As Haberman was asked about the broader reaction from Trumpworld, she assessed that she hadn’t seen a surge of conservatives backing Trump in light of this new development.

There was some prediction there might be some kind of rally-around-Trump effect, which we saw right after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August. I’m not seeing a lot of signs of that yet. It’s possible it will come, but, look. Everything with Donald Trump gets measured by ‘Do I actually get charged? Is this actually facing criminality?’ This is unprecedented. This was a really damning day for him, but does it move him closer to being indicted? I don’t think we know yet.

Kaitlan Collins followed up by asking what this means for Trump’s 2024 campaign when the referrals come amid other legal issues currently bogging the former president down. Haberman answered by calling Trump “distracted,” said his 2024 campaign rollout has been “lackluster,” and that there are “clear signs that his influence in the party is waning.”

“There is no question that Trump is a more diminished figure than at any point we’ve seen him since 2015,” she said. “People are just sick of kind of running to defend him all the time.”

Watch above via CNN.