Maggie Haberman reacts to clips of Trump attacking her as a ‘third-rate reporter’

‘He wants the New York Times to approve of him,’ Haberman says

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman showed no signs of personal injury when confronted with clips of former President Donald Trump attacking her credentials.

Mr Trump, who is both the subject of Ms Haberman’s new tell-all Confidence Man and once told the veteran White House reporter that she was “like my psychiatrist” during a post-presidency interview, had at times during his reign labelled her a “third-rate reporter” and attacked her personally in public screeds.

Ms Haberman delved into her complicated relationship with Mr Trump in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday night.

“He attacks you all the time, even though he obviously wants and craves your respect,” said Mr Tapper on his weekly prime time programThe Lead.

The CNN host went on to screen a series of clips from the 45th president in which he publicly admonished Ms Haberman in various settings.

“Who’s with ‘the New York Times? I hope it’s not Maggie Haberman or [Ashley] Parker because they’re not legit,” said the one-term president in one clip.

“They don’t know me. I haven’t seen her. I haven’t spoken to her in a year and a half,” said Mr Trump in another clip from an October 2020 interview on Rush Limbaugh’s show.

And in yet another public takedown, CNN screened a clip where the former real estate mogul is standing at the pulpit in the White House briefing room and he calls out Ms Haberman as a “third-rate reporter”.

A chuckling Mr Tapper then pulled back on screen and noted that Ms Haberman is an excellent reporter and in fact won the Pulitzer Prize covering the very man who had just seconds before described her as “third-rate”.

“What do you make of that? Because I think you and I both know he really wants you to approve of him,” Mr Tapper asked.

Ms Haberman replied that it’s not so much herself but the paper that she writes for that Mr Trump seeks validation from.

“He wants the New York Times to approve of him,” she said. “And I knew him before he was a candidate, so I think that’s part of it,” she partially conceded before adding, “But I really can’t overstate how much of the paper drives this.”

Ms Haberman said that she now has a “richer understanding” of the “animating forces” that led Trump to become the business mogul he became who later exported those characteristics to Washington, DC, the White House and more broadly, the Republican Party.

Some of those characteristics were on full display late Thursday night when the former president took to Truth Social to slander the House committee investigating the roots of the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot hours after they’d unanimously voted to subpoena him to testify.

“Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly - A laughing stock all over the World?” posted the twice-impeached president on Thursday night.

Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair and one of two Republicans who sit on the committee, noted that they could move to make criminal referrals, but emphasised that the main task at hand remained getting Trump make a testimony while sworn under oath.

“At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing,” she said, adding that the panel’s “duty today” was to the country.

“We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers,” she said.