Maggie Haberman: This indictment is the first time Trump 'can't control' his situation
Former President Donald Trump is in an unprecedented situation with the new indictment from the Manhattan District Attorney, said New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on CNN Thursday — largely because this is the first time he's had effectively no control over his legal situation. In fact, she said it caught them all by surprise.
"Historic night," said anchor Jake Tapper.
"It certainly is, and a busy one," said Haberman. "Look, there's so much that we don't know, and I know that we have been saying a version of that for many, many weeks. But I would just like to remind people that the word that people supporting Trump were putting out yesterday was fanning the flames of reports of the grand jury was out for a month. So, I think there's a lot of twists to take on this."
"He is now going to go through the process of getting arrested, and I think that that is going to be much more jarring for him than I think people realize," Haberman continued. "I've been told that he has been briefed on what that will look like. It will involve fingerprinting. It's going to be unlike a normal arraignment because he's going to have Secret Service. And this is going to look different. This is somebody who has spent more than four decades trying to avoid being arrested or being indicted. And so, this is a really scary moment for him, despite whatever he says. Now, you talk to different people tonight. You hear he's fine. You talk to others who say that he is very angry. I expect that we will be hearing all of those emotions going in various ways for the coming days. I don't know what the fallout is going to be politically."
Furthermore, Haberman said, "I think this is the first time that I can think of where he can't he can't control this."
"He was able to control impeachment in some way because Mitch McConnell was on his side in the Senate trial, because House Republicans were on his side," said Haberman. "He was even able to control the second impeachment to some extent, with the Mueller report and the investigation. He was never going to get indicted as a sitting president, and I think that he has an overconfidence in his ability to impact events by intimidation tactics, by pushing out headlines. This is now in the hands of whatever judge he draws, and what the voters think."
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