Trump consigliere turned federal informant Michael Cohen shared his fear that there will “never be a peaceful transition of power” if his former boss loses the 2020 election during a congressional hearing some called a ‘circus.’
“You don’t know him! I do!” Cohen insisted plaintively during his testimony before the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives, before predicting Trump would refuse to step down even if he was defeated in 2020.
Despite promising big things – proof that Trump had instructed him to commit crimes, evidence of Trump’s racism, even the holy grail of Russian collusion – Cohen failed to deliver anything tangible to the salivating Democrats on the committee, admitting he had no “real examples” of collusion and instead filling his time on the stand with public displays of repentance over his ten years of service to Trump.
Republicans, meanwhile, repeatedly reminded the committee that Cohen had already been convicted for perjury. Rep. Carol Miller (R-West Virginia) denounced the entire affair as a “circus.”
“This is the same Michael Cohen who has admitted that he lied to Congress previously,” Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany pointed out. “Why did they even bother to swear him in this time?”
Trump has accused Cohen of “lying in order to reduce his prison time” and has previously called his former lawyer – who rejoined the Democratic Party in October – a “rat” and a “weak person.” Those hurt by Cohen’s turncoating shouldn’t have been surprised, however: the now-disbarred lawyer revealed he only joined the GOP after former Republican National Committee chair Steve Wynn learned he was a Democrat, while he was serving as vice chairman of the RNC’s Finance Committee.
The congressional hearing, which coincided with Trump’s Hanoi summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was originally scheduled for earlier this month but postponed because of “ongoing threats” against Cohen’s family, according to his lawyer, Democrat operative Lanny Davis.