Haberman on Trump campaign: ‘Some anxiety below the surface’

CNN political analyst and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said former President Trump’s campaign is projecting confidence but there’s anxiety “below the surface.”

Haberman joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper on election night from West Palm Beach, Fla., where Trump is hosting a party.

“They’re projecting a lot of confidence, Anderson, I think that there’s some anxiety below the surface,” she said.

Haberman said the Trump campaign has grown uncertain over the last several days because Trump had a “very rough closing.”

Trump made headlines Sunday for saying he would not “mind” a person shooting “through the fake news” at a rally, which his campaign later clarified. He also sparked backlash last week after he described former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) having guns “trained on her face.”

Haberman argued that Trump’s team braces for impact when the former president goes off script at his rallies, especially in the final days of the campaign.

“You can see on his aides’ faces when he goes off script and off teleprompter how stressful it is for them because he could be saying anything. It’s like watching a car driving and swerving all over the road,” she said.

Meanwhile, Vice President Harris has pledged to be a “president for all Americans” and called for unity in her final campaign messaging. She received a major boost of energy over the weekend after a poll found Harris leading Trump by 3 points in Iowa. Her campaign believes they have the edge, just hours before the election ends.

Still, both campaigns have expressed confidence. The former president’s team has repeatedly noted he’s in a stronger position in the polls than he was during his previous campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

“They are coming into this election with Trump in a better position polling wise, as his campaign often points out, than he has in his last two, but it’s very hard to account for what has happened in the last 10 days after the Madison Square Garden rally, which most of them now acknowledge was a debacle,” Haberman said Tuesday.

Trump held a rally in New York where comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a comment calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” The remark has drawn sharp criticism and the Trump campaign attempted to distance itself from the comedian amid the fallout.

In terms of what impact Trump’s closing message has on voters, Haberman said “we’ll see.”