Haberman: Trump campaign ‘perfectly happy’ with Vance in ‘attack dog’ role

New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman said Tuesday that she thinks former President Trump’s campaign is “perfectly happy” letting his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R), take on the role of “attack dog.”

In an interview Tuesday on CNN’s AC360, anchor Anderson Cooper played a clip of Vance blasting Democrats for labeling Trump a fascist, immediately followed by a compilation of moments in which the GOP presidential nominee used the same insult.

Cooper asked Haberman, who has covered the former president for decades, about Vance focusing on the term “fascist,” despite Trump frequently using the term to blast his own political opponents.

“That just seems such an obvious thing that Trump says,” Cooper said. “You would think — I mean, he knows that. You think you would coordinate at least his statements with the Trump campaign a little.”

Haberman pushed back, saying, “I don’t think the Trump campaign is unhappy at all with what JD Vance is saying.”

“We have seen for a long time that when Trump is called something, he tends to say it back to whoever has said to him. And I think that the Trump campaign is perfectly happy with the role that JD Vance is playing as an attack dog,” she continued. “If they were not, he would not continue doing it.”

Since Trump was targeted in a second apparent assassination attempt Sunday, Vance has gone on the offensive against Democrats, saying their rhetoric against Trump is “going to get somebody killed.”

“Look, we can disagree with one another. We can debate one another, but we cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist. And if he’s elected, it is going to be the end of American democracy,” Vance said in a speech Monday night, in the clip Cooper played Tuesday.

The Ohio senator continued his criticism of Democrats on the campaign trail Tuesday.

“Don’t lecture Donald Trump about softening his rhetoric after two people tried to kill him. It’s ridiculous,” Vance said. “Tell Kamala Harris, tell Joe Biden, tell all of her surrogates who are saying things like ‘Donald Trump needs to be eliminated,’ they need to cut that crap out or they are gonna get somebody hurt.”

The first-term senator admitted that polarizing rhetoric comes from both political parties, but said “what is one-sided is that our guy is the one who keeps getting shot at.”

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.