Maggie Haberman and Gayle King Caution That Trump’s Campaign is ‘Apocalyptic’ and ‘Dangerous’

Maggie Haberman, a reporter for The New York Times, has cautioned that former President Donald Trump's campaign messaging has taken on a more dire tone in recent months. While speaking to CNN host Gayle King, Haberman mentioned that the ex-POTUS' rhetoric has taken on an "apocalyptic" turn, leading to concerns about the potential for "political violence."

During the recent episode of CNN's King Charles, co-hosts King and Charles Barkley sought Haberman's perspective on Trump's remarks made at a campaign rally recently. "[Trump] has been speaking — as have a lot of his supporters and a lot of folks on the right — in increasingly apocalyptic terms, describing essentially the country is on fire, describing everything as in tumult, describing everything as terrible, describing everything as the ultimate fight to take the country back, quote-unquote," Haberman said during the interview. "What he’s been saying all year is, some version of, ‘I am your retribution,’" she added per Mediaite.

Commenting further on the statements passed by the business mogul-turned-politician, on the Capitol riots and his cases pending in the court, Haberman expressed, "And so, I think that what is happening is a couple of things. I think that as he is running he is facing the threat of losing his freedom. He is facing four indictments. There’s only one trial scheduled. It starts in a few weeks, but he is essentially running, you know in part for his freedom at minimum."

"Some people think it’s more than that. Number one, number two. This is a rematch between two people who ran against each other four years ago and now both of them have a record. And so, that does actually make it different because with neither one of them is anything just hypothetical. And we really haven’t seen that in decades in this country, a very, very long time," she added stating her views on the current political scenario in the country. 

"But the way that the former president is characterizing this race and characterizing the country is really, really dark and it is —," she said as she got intervened by King, who completed her sentence by saying, "I think it’s dangerous." Completing her statement, Haberman added, "And well — and it’s and it’s striking a note for a lot of

his supporters. Now, what we have seen over the last couple of years and — and we’ve talked about this a lot, is an increase in the threats of political violence. And I think that is a big open question about what we see in the next seven months or beyond."

Haberman cautioned that the inflammatory language and pledges of retaliation are not mere bluffs. "[Trump] has made very clear that he is going to use his time in office to go after President Biden and his family. He is going to radically change the federal government. He is going to erode the post-Watergate norm, between the Justice Department and the White House," she said.