CNN’s Maggie Haberman said on Thursday that Donald Trump was “among the most animated we’ve seen” during his New York criminal trial.
Jurors heard additional testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who testified he helped then-candidate Trump in 2016 by running negative articles about his political opponents while also engaging in “catch and kill” schemes to suppress bad press about Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments meant to cover up extramarital affairs.
Haberman appeared on Thursday’s edition of The Situation Room.
“What did you observe about Trump’s demeanor today?” host Wolf Blitzer asked. “And where is his head at right now?”
“So, Wolf, he shook his head several times as David Pecker was testifying,” he replied. “It’s actually among the most animated we have seen him… But this was uncomfortable testimony from David Pecker, walking the jury through a narrative about engaging with Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen about killing stories about Trump’s involvement with two women. And in particular, Pecker told stories about engaging with Trump while Trump was president and having a conversation that related to one of these women.”
Blitzer pointed to a photo of Pecker visiting Trump at the White House during a meeting in which the former president asked Pecker about Karen McDougal, with whom Trump had an ongoing affair.
“How significant is that?” the host asked.
“There’s documentation that backs up what– the story that Pecker was telling,” Haberman replied. “There were a lot of references to text messages, to emails… And those are supposed to speak to Pecker’s credibility. The fact that Pecker is saying that he had this conversation with Trump where Trump was knowledgeable enough about Karen McDougal to ask, ‘How is she doing?’ I think could end up being significant.”
Watch above via CNN.
