Far-left New York Times columnist Maggie Haberman made a wild accusation about President-elect Donald Trump’s eventual attorney general selection during a CNN appearance.
She was invited to CNN to discuss a recent article she co-wrote, which examines Trump’s methods, concerns, and priorities in selecting senior positions for his second administration.
“You and your colleagues wrote that Trump’s doing what he tends to do. He calls around to friends and associates; asks them who he thinks they should pick for his administration,” said anchor Manu Raju. “So, what are you hearing, Maggie, about what Trump’s most interested in as he’s — and what he’s focused on, as he’s looking to fill out his cabinet?”
“All of this is heavily, heavily asterisked right now. There are lists going around. There are people floating names. Trump is soliciting names. He’s suggesting names that he’s considering for people,” she claimed, though in reality, it’s more likely Trump has been considering people for his next Cabinet and government for months.
“None of this is real until he actually says what he’s going to do. And it’s notable that he started out by eliminating people with a Saturday night Truth post about Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley,” she said before revealing what she believes are Trump’s priorities.
“He’s most interested in a handful of Cabinet posts, and that’s been the case the whole time. He was not interested in most of his Cabinet during his term. He’s interested in the attorney general, the secretary of defense, the CIA director,” she said. “And he is interested in the secretary of Homeland Security because that’s the piece that deals heavily with immigration. And that is something that he’s campaigned on aggressively.”
To Haberman’s latter point, Trump named South Dakota Gov. Kristy Noem as his DHS secretary nominee on Monday.
“What those posts end up looking like really remains to be seen. What we have heard is that there is not a ton of consensus around who could fill any of those spots right now,” Haberman said. “And unlike what we saw when he was coming in as new president in 2017, there are not a bunch of big names from, you know, established Washington or, you know, prominent companies — like Rex Tillerson, the head of ExxonMobil, who became the Secretary of State.
“This is much more people who are coming from Congress or people who are coming from the states or who are known to Trump. And we’ll see what that ends up looking like,” she said. “They are aware that they have a Senate majority now that makes it easier to get a bunch of people confirmed, but it’s still — there’s the possibility of losing a bunch of Republican votes if Trump nominates controversial people.”
Raju followed up with a comment that lacked self-awareness, noting how Trump “talks so much about retaliation against his political enemies on the campaign trail. Is that a real consideration as he weighs his attorney general pick?”
Joe Biden’s Justice Department literally indicted Trump twice, including charging him with illegally retaining classified documents despite the fact that Biden was found to have had several in his possession, along with Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, as well as former President Bill Clinton, who kept classified recordings in a sock drawer, according to reports.
“Is he serious about retribution? He’s been talking about retribution or revenge pretty consistently over the last, you know, two years, but certainly most of his life. So yes, I expect that will be a thing,” she said. “He talked earlier in the show about his desire for loyalty. We heard him ask a number of people about when he was in office previously. That will be the case this time.”
Democratic presidents also expect their Cabinet and administration picks to be loyal as well, for the record.