Maggie Haberman on reporting, the White House and President Trump

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It’s not easy interviewing a busy reporter. And it’s especially difficult when that reporter is covering the White House and President Donald Trump on the eve of the Mueller Report’s release. Our interview was, by necessity, brief.

But when I got a few minutes to talk to Maggie Haberman, the New York Times White House correspondent, we had a fascinating conversation about covering the Trump White House.

What’s it like?

Covering the White House is crazy, she says. It can be all consuming.

“He [Trump] can be very hard to keep up with. He thrives on chaos,” she said. “He does things to keep himself in the news. He doesn’t know any other way.”

Haberman is coming to Temple Beth-El May 2 where she will speak as part of the Benefactors Fund series.

She will talk about what it’s like to be a reporter at a time when reporters are in the President’s crosshairs. Haberman plans to talk about the presidency and covering the White House and President Trump. And she will speak “a little bit about being Jewish,” she said.

Haberman isn’t sure whether Trump’s penchant for ignoring normal presidential behavior will permanently change the presidency.

“It remains to be seen whether future presidents are going to continue shattering norms or whether they will restore norms,” she said. “I do think social media is to everyone’s detriment.”

Haberman joined the Times in 2015 and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting about Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia.

She said she doesn’t think that the Russia probe will be a crucial focus of the 2020 election campaign.

“A lot of the election will come down to the state of the economy,” she said. “If we are in a recession, it will be much harder for him.”

And health care will again be an issue.

Haberman has worked at The New York Post, New York Daily News and Politico. She also appears as an analyst on CNN. Based in New York, she travels to Washington, D.C. once or twice a week, she said.

Generally speaking, she said she feels that her TV appearances complement her newspaper reporting. People need to remember that “we are doing the best we can to get the story,” she said.

Alan Rosenberg, executive editor of The Providence Journal and a Temple Beth-El member, will moderate the conversation at the event.

“I’ll definitely take questions. Those are always the best,” Haberman adds.

This event is sponsored by the Benefactors Fund established in 1979 by philanthropic members of the congregation to provide cultural enrichment for Temple Beth-El members and the community. Guest speakers and events funded by the Benefactors Fund have included Cokie Roberts, Madame Jehar Sadat, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Dennis Roberts, Marvin Hamlisch and Audra McDonald.

Haberman, Beth-El, Benefactors Fund