New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman recently told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins that people who are close to ex-President Donald Trump in the courtroom admit he has been sleeping during his trial — but pointed out “it’s not always sleeping” via Mediaite.
Trump’s trial has 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business records to pay off adult star Stormy Daniels, who has been marked by an embarrassing theme. As it was first reported that Trump fell asleep in court, the man who nicknamed his rival “Sleepy Joe” has been caught napping in court at least half-a-dozen times.
On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman — who was first to report the breaking snooze — revealed sources around Trump confirm he has been sleeping.
However, she also minimized the importance of the story and went out of her way to state that sometimes he’s just “sitting there with his eyes closed for long periods of time” as a way of “compartmentalizing” negative testimony:
HABERMAN: Yesterday was very tense in that courtroom. And there have been some days that have been tense. Some days have been pretty lax.
Yesterday was very tense for a couple of reasons. The testimony that you’re talking about, you had Keith Davidson, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, during that time period of October 2016, just reading, to validate these text exchanges with Michael Cohen or with Dylan Howard, the AMI executive, who he was working with.
And they were really, really damaging, about Trump, with his middle son, sitting behind him in the courtroom, and a phalanx of aides. The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, was there. David McIntosh, from the Club for Growth was there. This was unusual to watch.
And Trump deals with it. Sometimes, he is sleeping. I know there’s this huge sleeping debate. But sometimes–
COLLINS: Yes. The great debate of our time–
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: –is his sleeping.
HABERMAN: Most important thing of the trial, and I mean that in no way.
But sometimes, he is — sometimes he is sleeping. That is a 100 percent true. I’ve seen it. People around him have confirmed to me that he has been sleeping at times that we have said he is.
However, sometimes he is closing his eyes, and I’ve talked to people around him about this too, because that is how he tries to just basically stay calm and deal with it. And whether that then leads to sleep or whatever, who knows? But he is sitting there with his eyes closed for long periods of time. It’s not always sleeping.
COLLINS: Yes, I noticed this, because he’s very clearly awake, but his eyes are closed, for like a minute at a time as–
HABERMAN: Sometimes more, yes.
COLLINS: –as Keith Davidson or the witnesses is answering. It’s like he doesn’t want to hear what they’re saying either.
HABERMAN: I think it’s — I think it is a compartmentalization method. And he’s pretty good at compartmentalizing,
COLLINS: And I know you’ll be back in the courtroom, tomorrow.
HABERMAN: Yes.
COLLINS: Maggie Haberman, great reporting as always. Thank you.
