Republicans are mum on Trump's criminal referrals because they're 'sick' of defending him: NYT's Haberman

During an appearance on "CNN This Morning" on Tuesday, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman claimed Donald Trump's support with the Republican Party is in freefall and that she is finding it harder and harder to find any GOP lawmakers who want to talk about him.

Speaking with co-host Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon, the Times White House reporter said that, to the best of her knowledge, the former president did not watch the final televised House select committee hearing but is very concerned about how he is being portrayed.

"What about the idea of his political influence, given the charges are unprecedented with criminal referrals and other investigations that we have been talking about, host Collins asked. "What does this mean for him and his third run?"

"Five weeks in now and pretty lackluster so far," Haberman bluntly stated. "He admittedly seemed distracted, or not that interested. We'll see what it looks like headed into a New Year."

"There are clear signs his influence in the party is waning and we don't know what that will mean going into next year. Do other challengers challenge him? Does Ron DeSantis even run or do people ultimately decide to sit it out?" she continued. "No question that Trump is a more diminished figure than at any point we've seen him since 2015."

Asked about her tweets pointing out that Trump is "a diminished figure politically," Haberman talked about the former president's current status and whether the referrals will have a "rallying effect" among GOP lawmakers

"Some Republicans who don't like him, to be clear, didn't want to say this publicly, to seem to be undermining the committee, but they are concerned about that, because now we had seen that pattern so many times, where there is some rallying effect. I think that's something to watch for now," she elaborated. "Again, I'm not seeing signs of that yet -- maybe it will come. But I think that is a clear measure of whether his influence waned; people are sick of kind of running to defend him all the time."

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