Trump has 'melded' indictment 'completely into his political campaign': Maggie Haberman
Former President Donald Trump is enraged about the Espionage Act indictment against him in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, as well as the potential charges coming for his involvement in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Despite this, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday, Trump is incorporating all of this into his campaign, keen to build a narrative with his supporters.
"Publicly, the former president seems at rallies to talk about it," said Cooper. "Do you have any reporting on how he's viewing this privately?"
"Viewing which?" asked Haberman. "The investigation or his indictment?"
"His indictment and also all of the above, really," said Cooper, adding, "He's sort of playing it off publicly has he's suffering this for, you know, everybody else's benefit."
"Look, he is playing this politically," agreed Haberman, who has extensively covered Trump's mounting legal woes. "He has incorporated the indictment that he has already — that he has now, and the possibility of another and possibly yet another, one in Georgia and one in Washington over January 6th and his efforts to stay in power. He has melded this completely into his political campaign. And you're, I think, going to see that going forward for some time. He is — you know, he laughs it off or he dismisses it or he describes it as a witch hunt. And you're going to see that for a long time."
Despite his bravado, Haberman notes, behind the scenes it's a bit of a different story.
"He has been very angry at various points about the federal indictment in particular," she said. "He is facing a lot of legal action. He's not happy about any of it. But he's still going to make that a key feature of his messaging." She added that he is also especially angry about special counsel Jack Smith interviewing members of his family like Jared Kushner, because "it adds to his complaints, privately, that they are targeting him and targeting the Trumps."
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