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Donald Trump appears not to be “in command” of himself as he’s “jarred” by the rise of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, longtime observer Maggie Haberman said on CNN on Friday.
Appearing on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Haberman was played a clip of the former president calling into Fox News on Thursday after Harris’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
As Trump criticized Harris, he appeared to be inadvertently pressing buttons on his phone.
Blitzer noted that Trump also called into Fox News’s smaller rightwing challenger Newsmax, asking Haberman what the interviews said about Trump’s “mindset.”
“He’s very reactive ... when he is not in command,” The New York Times journalist said. “And we have seen this over the course of the last nine years that he’s been in politics or in the political arena. He is clearly jarred by her. He has been trying to get back into the national conversation for several weeks now ever since President Biden announced he wasn’t running for re-election.”
Former President Barack Obama mocked Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes during the DNC and former First Lady Michelle Obama also gave remarks in which she went straight at Trump.
“Both of the Obamas’ speeches got under his skin,” Haberman said. “He is very reactive to both of them. We have seen that since 2011 when Trump spread the lie that President Obama was possibly born in Kenya and therefore illegitimate to be president. I think you’re going to see more of this.”
During Trump’s call-in with Fox News, the former president appeared to get agitated at a question from host Martha MacCallum.
“There’s been a huge appeal and momentum for women voters. [Harris] is trying to pull the youth vote, the Hispanic vote, the Black vote back in her direction. Polls show that she’s having some success in that at this point. What are you going to do? What’s your strategy to rebuild the momentum that you had with those voters?” she asked.
“No, she’s not having success, I’m having success,” Trump said.
He claimed to be doing well in polls with Hispanic and Black voters, adding that he was leading in the polls and in “almost every” key battleground state.
“No, it’s only in your eyes that they have that, Martha,” Trump said.
