Haberman: Trump pressing conservative media to write election was ‘stolen’

Former President Trump wants conservative media to legitimize his conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election being stolen and claims that he’ll soon be reinstated, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Wednesday.

“He has been trying to get conservative writers to publish, you know, in a more mainstream way that this election was, quote unquote, stolen from him,” Haberman told CNN “New Day” co-host John Berman, without naming any writers.

She said Trump has been “laser focused” on the Arizona election audit and reaching out to other conservative politicians and commentators for support, hoping they’ll help promote the idea that the elections will be overturned.

“And none of that is possible. But this is the kind of thing that he is trying to flush into the conservative media ecosystem,” Haberman said. “And I expect it to get more intense the more he is under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the state attorney general in New York and the threat of indictment over the coming months.”

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately provide a comment on Haberman’s remarks.

Haberman’s CNN appearance came a day after she tweeted that Trump has been privately asserting that he would be “reinstated” as president.

“Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (No, that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information),” she tweeted.

Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information). https://t.co/kaXSXKnpF0

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 1, 2021

Her post reignited a debate on Twitter about reporting on discredited conspiracy theories of the former president and his supporters.

Her reporting did not give his ravings any appearance of legitimacy at all.

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) June 1, 2021

Haberman addressed the criticism on “New Day,” telling Berman and co-host Brianna Keilar that ignoring Trump and his theories won’t make them go away.

“You know, why people are attacking me for reporting the news … this has always been a bit of a mystery,” Haberman said.

“As I said before, I think people are in their own media ecosystems. And I think that there are a lot of people around [President] Biden and a lot of people who support Biden who want to pretend that if they call Trump the former guy, and if you don’t say his name, that the only thing that would matter is if you give him attention. He’s the former president. He is in control of the Republican Party to a big extent.”