NYT's Maggie Haberman on Trump's Russia denials: 'He is punching at ghosts and hitting himself in the face'

New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman asserted on Sunday that President Donald Trump should blame himself for sabotaging his own agenda.

On CNN's Inside Politics, host John King wondered if Trump was damaging his own "ability to get stuff done" when he attacks the media for reporting on Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

"Quite a bit," Haberman said. "He's good at misdirection and we hear about it a lot. There's been a big theory in Washington for a while now that every time the president tweets, it's some kind of a distraction from something else. That's like saying you're burning your hand to distract from your burning ear."

"This is not good every time he calls attention back to this," she continued. "When characterizes Russia -- just broadly Russia -- as fake news or a scam. Remember, the only thing we do know is that there was a hacking and that 17 different divisions of the intelligence community say that this was done by Russia and that this was done to help elevate his campaign. He sounds like he is dismissing all of that when he does that."

"The White House has been unable to get out of its own way on this. And part of that is that this president, when he feels like he is under attack, he attacks back. But now he's punching at ghosts and hitting himself in the face."

Watch the entire segment below from CNN, broadcast April 2, 2017.