Maggie Haberman, a political reporter for The New York Times, weighed in on the upcoming debate between former President Trump and President Biden, noting that Trump was aware that he interrupted Biden “too much” during the first 2020 debate.
Haberman spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night about how Trump is preparing for next week’s debate, suggesting that Trump isn’t actually “doing a mock debate” but is focusing on policy areas through lawmakers’ briefings.
“He’s told people multiple times that he knew he interrupted too often in the first debate with Biden in 2020, and I recently rewatched the debate and it was really shocking,” Haberman told CNN’s “Anderson 360.”
“We were all talking about it at the time, and Biden was barely able to interject a word and had a smile on his face the whole time this was happening,” she added.
The first debate of the last presidential election was marked by a series of verbal exchanges between the two candidates, with Trump clashing repeatedly with moderator Chris Wallace and the Republican front-runner repeatedly interrupting Biden throughout the debate, leading many to reach for the mute button.
During next week’s debate, hosted by CNN, both candidates have agreed to keep their microphones muted throughout the debate unless called upon to speak, and hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will “take all necessary steps to maintain timing and ensure a civil debate.”
Haberman said Trump is focusing on “policy time” by bringing in a variety of people, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), and suggested he is also practicing how to answer questions about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“They were focused on a range of issues that could come up – abortion, health care, energy, COVID-19 – and very specifically, a hot topic last Thursday was how Trump would respond to questions about January 6th, particularly his comments about pardoning some of the people arrested in connection with the violence that day,” the Times reporter said.
She added that the former president’s team wanted Trump to say, when asked if he would pardon those who have been arrested, that it would be on a case-by-case basis.
Haberman also noted that Trump doesn’t like preparing for debates.
“Trump doesn’t like primaries; he sees them as school,” she said, “so the fact that they let him do this is actually pretty revealing, and I think it also speaks to the fact that he knows this election is going to go well.”
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
