“We’re never going away,” Trump told another. “How can you leave when you won an election?” Trump’s insistence that he will not leave the White House, which has not been reported before, adds new detail to the chaotic post-election period in which Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and numerous attempts to overturn the election result have led to January 6. , 2021, US Capitol attacked by pro-Trump rioters. Haberman’s book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” is released on October 4. The revelations from the book come as investigators in the U.S. House and Justice Department probe Trump’s refusal to cede power after the 2020 election. The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 plans more hearings and a final report this in the fall, while federal investigators recently served subpoenas on several former Trump aides. Haberman, a CNN political analyst, has covered Trump for The New York Times since his 2016 campaign. Her stories made her a frequent target of Trump’s vitriol on Twitter. Haberman writes that immediately after the Nov. 3 election, Trump seemed to acknowledge that he had lost to Biden. He asked advisers to tell him what went wrong. He comforted a counselor, saying, “We did our best.” Trump told junior press associates, “I thought we had it,” seemingly almost embarrassed by the outcome, according to Haberman. But at some point, Trump’s mood changed, Haberman writes, and he abruptly informed aides that he had no intention of leaving the White House at the end of January 2021 for Biden to move in. He was overheard asking Republican National Committee Chairwoman Rona McDaniel, “Why should I leave if it was stolen from me?” Trump’s promise to refuse to vacate the White House was unprecedented, Haberman writes, and his statement left aides uncertain about what he might do next. The closest parallel may have been Mary Todd Lincoln, who stayed in the White House for nearly a month after her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated, the author noted. Publicly, Trump has deflected questions about whether he would leave office. On November 26, 2020, he was asked by a reporter if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Biden. “I sure will, and you know that,” Trump said in response, as he continued to spread lies about the election being stolen. A longtime New York-based reporter who has worked for both of the city’s tabloid newspapers, Haberman writes that Trump’s post-election period was reminiscent of his efforts to bounce back from the dire economic situation three decades earlier, in which he tried to keep all options open for as long as possible. But Trump couldn’t decide which way to go after losing in 2020. Haberman writes that he asked almost everyone about which options would lead to success — including the valet who brought Diet Cokes when Trump pushed a red button in his office in the Oval Office. The report provided to CNN by the upcoming book also reveals new details about what those around Trump did after an election loss he refused to accept. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was reluctant to confront Trump about the loss, according to Haberman. When he encouraged a group of aides to go to the White House and brief the then-President, Kushner was asked why he didn’t join them himself. Trump’s son-in-law likened it to a death scene, Haberman writes. “The priest is coming later,” Kushner said.
