Maggie Haberman: Don’t write Trump off for 2024
Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
Former President Donald Trump is seeking to regain his old job, and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman is back on his trail covering his latest campaign.
In a virtual event sponsored by the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, Haberman ”” who chronicled Trump”™s rise to presidential power in the book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” published last October by Penguin Press ”” observed that it is a mistake to write off Trump as a viable candidate.
“I think people are underestimating him,” Haberman said. “I don”™t think that that means people should overstate him. He is a diminished presence in our public consciousness and in our discourse ”” that doesn”™t mean he will stay that way.”
Trump was the first Republican to announce his bid for the party”™s 2024 presidential nomination, which Haberman viewed as a strategy to “essentially freeze the field and keep anybody from coming after him.” But while Trump is trying to put the spotlight on his future, Haberman noted he is carrying a surplus amount of political baggage.
“We can”™t forget whenever we write about him that he is facing a criminal investigation in Georgia, in New York, two Justice Department investigations, plus a blizzard of lawsuits ”” which are normally his specialty to file against other people,” she continued. “I don”™t know what this all looks like in terms of a Trump campaign through the course of 2023.”
Haberman acknowledged that other Republicans have been touted as potential candidates for the presidency, but none have been eager to dive into the race. She pointed out that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “the person who most Republicans talk about in terms of having a hunger for somebody who”™s not Trump, and that is real in that party,” but she added he is “completely untested on the national stage.” She predicted former South Carolina Gov. Nikkie Haley was “likely to be the next person to jump in” while South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have also been viewed as potential candidates.
However, Haberman noted a Republican Party trend of hyping candidates who either stumble once on the campaign trail ”” most notably former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who “seemed great until he started talking in debates” ”” or who just fizzle in the spotlight, such as former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Haberman pointed out that a possible Biden-Trump rematch in 2024 would be historic as the first time when both major party candidates are being investigated by special counsels for retaining classified documents in their private residences after leaving office.
“We are in such uncharted territory right now,” she added. “We will see if DOJ does anything related to that in terms of the special counsel, although I think the circumstances are a little different. Biden is effectively Merrick Garland”™s boss, and I think he felt like he had to appoint somebody who was independent. And Trump was a declared candidate, which is part of the issue there as well, because they had been investigating Trump related to the January 6 attack and to the documents for many months.”
For Haberman, Trump has been in her crosshairs for the past dozen years.
“I had been working at Politico in 2011 when Trump was considering running for president, and that was when he spread the birther lie of President Obama,” she recalled. “I saw how powerful that was in the Republican primary in terms of elevating Trump”™s poll numbers. It didn”™t get him 100% approval, but it started moving his numbers up in a primary in which he really struggled before that, because on the issues he was not aligned with the GOP base in any meaningful way.”
While Haberman faulted others for underestimating Trump, she freely admitted she made a major mistake in not taking him seriously. After Trump decided not to seek the 2012 Republican nomination for president ”” Utah Sen. Mitt Romney ultimately scored the nomination but lost to Obama in the general election ”” Haberman viewed him as someone more interested in publicizing his TV show “The Apprentice” than seeking to run the country.
“And until he actually ran, I was not going to write a word,” she said. “This is what I said when his aide Sam Nunberg called me and said, ”˜You know, Trump”™s gonna announce on June 16 (2015) and we want you to break it.”™ And I basically said, ”˜No, I”™m not, I”™m not doing this again until he actually is in the race.”™ Now, in hindsight, not my best call.”