Republicans Struggle to Protect Trump While Trashing Cohen
The worse the president’s defenders attempt to make his ex-lawyer look, the worse the president looks for relying on him for 10 years.
In the hot seat.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Michael Cohen didn’t push the story forward very much in his testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday morning, although there were some interesting hints about what federal prosecutors in New York might still be looking into. But he did confirm a lot of what people paying close attention already believed – in particular that president Donald Trump is (as Cohen put it) a “conman” and a “cheat” who frequently directed his personal lawyer and others to do unethical and even illegal actions.
Will any of it make a difference? For the most part, it’s likely that the hearing will just confirm the biases of most solid partisans: Democrats will hear that Trump is a crook; Republicans will hear that Cohen is a convicted liar who can’t be trusted.