CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman predicted that Donald Trump’s press conference in New York after leaving court on Friday will backfire.
Trump attended a hearing in New York to appeal his $5 million 2023 civil jury verdict that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll decades ago in a department store, and then defamed her.
He later held a press conference where he repeated statements similar to the ones he made before, which led to the second trial and an $83 million judgement.
Haberman said she didn’t know of anyone who advised Trump to attend the court hearing Friday or to address the media. He was not required to attend the court proceedings.
“I don’t know of anyone who was recommending that he do this,” Haberman said on CNN’s The Source, according to a clip shared by Mediaite. “All this is going to do is call more attention to that as well at a moment when he is trailing badly with women in polls.”
According to a ABC News/Ipsos poll, Harris leads Trump by 13 points among women, 54%-41%.
Haberman said Trump reminded voters in “graphic detail” about the allegations against him and while that may have worked in the GOP primary it will not fly in a general election.
“I think there are people who are leaning in one direction or another and may say that they’re undecided, but they’re really persuadable,” Haberman told CNN. “This is not generally a lot of information that you would put out there and he just gave the Harris team a bunch of soundbites to use in ads.”
