Trump is 'lighting his arm on fire to distract from his burning leg': NYT's Haberman

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Tuesday downplayed any notion that President Donald Trump's tweet in support of the Confederate flag was part of a grand strategy to distract the country from other, more damaging scandals.

In particular, Haberman said that Trump wasn't doing himself any favors by changing the subject of conversation from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic to his support for racist symbols.

"It's often the equivalent of lighting his arm on fire to distract from his burning leg," she explained. "These are not well thought out plans."

Haberman did allow that Trump would rather be talking about racial issues over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that so far has killed more than 130,000 Americans with no end in sight.

Haberman also said that it's even become a question about whether Trump even wants to be reelected this fall.

"There are many people around the president who are questioning whether he's actively trying to win anymore," she said. "There are reasons to question that. I think he would react pretty angrily if somebody said that directly to him, but the reality is he's taking a number of incredibly self-damaging actions, and this is one of them."

Watch the video below.