So much went down during Michael Cohen’s day-long testimony before the House Oversight Committee, it would be difficult to even try to do comprehensive highlights. Suffice to say, I came away with several feelings/thoughts. Despite my belief that Cohen was nothing more than a mob lawyer, he showed that he actually has a better grasp of the law than most of Donald Trump’s DOJ appointments. Cohen was prepared and he spoke cautiously at times, aware of what he did not have direct knowledge of and what subjects were perhaps ongoing investigations. But anything he had direct knowledge of or was witness to, all of that was fair game. And he had a lot to say. I was also struck by how the sad, pathetic Republicans really had no strategy other to whine and scream about how Cohen is a liar. Like they and their president are world-renowned for their honesty.
Here’s a highlight video, there are tons of other highlights on YouTube:
A few other interesting moments… he said Trump thinks his son Don Jr. is a moron. Eric Trump is basically the ghost child of the Trump family, barely given any duties (which is probably a good thing for Eric). Ivanka is in it up to her neck, especially with the Moscow Project. Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Org CFO, also got name-checked A LOT. Cohen also made it repeatedly clear that he has general awareness of several investigations around Donald Trump, at least one of which we don’t even know about.
There were a lot of interesting “takes” on Cohen’s testimony and the Republican strategy within the House Oversight Committee, and I guess your take is dependent on your personal politics. I thought the Republicans looked foolish, treasonous and incapable of bare-bones logic. Cohen was a man who less than a year ago worked for the RNC. They’re not mad that he’s an admitted liar, they’re mad that he stopped lying to cover up for Trump. And we didn’t even get to the part where they used a black woman – a Trump administration employee – as a prop, then Mark Meadows cried about it when he was called out for using the woman as a prop. Meadows thought THAT was the real racism, when he was called out for his own racist trickery.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Rep. Mark Meadows was using "a black woman as a prop” by presenting Lynn Patton, a HUD appointee who is African-American, to make the case that President Trump isn’t racist. “I’m saying that in itself it is a racist act.” https://t.co/WZSUgKqGYs
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 28, 2019
“This check… marks the first time in American history that we have seen a check signed by a President for an illegal purpose,” @Lawrence #CohenHearing #SmokingGun pic.twitter.com/fcskORaCMR
— Richard Hine (@richardhine) February 28, 2019
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
What a pantomime. Embarrassed for the people of Arizona, who have that clown representing them
Speaking as an Arizonian that was embarrassing as hell! He’s the guy who’s siblings all did an attack add against him last year. He represents the portion of the state that is currently holding AZ hostage as a purple state when we could easily flip blue. Bunch of old idiots and religious extremists so that stupid liar liar sign probably worked well for them.
Truer words never spoken, Ann.
So very true!!! What a moron!
My favorite was the poor man’s Rosco P. Coltrane…up there screaming about boxes and trying to “Mariah” Michael Cohen with an “I don’t know you.”
I do believe Rosco is quite possibly the stupidest man in Washington and my God that is a high bar.
I was deeply disturbed by how dumb all of the Republicans were and how easily they were handled by Cohen. I shudder to think how easily they could be converted to Russian assets.
Yeah, most of these people come across as blithering idiots. It is quite shocking. WTF do people VOTE for such morons???? I don’t understand it. Here in Australia we also have our fair share of moronic politicians and it makes me insane. Our current PM is a moron – although, we didn’t actually vote for him so there is that I suppose. Pretty sure he is about to get slaughtered in the next elections too.
It was bananas. I think the big takeaway was that all the Rs could scream about was 1) how Cohen may have been an unregistered lobbyist/foreign agent, but the general public doesn’t really care about that, let’s be honest, and
2) how he has zero credibility b/c hes going to jail for lying. That one may have had some steam, except that he brought actual receipts. Its hard to say “why should we believe you?” when his response is “you don’t have to, here’s a copy of the check.” Also, they did nothing to dispute his ACTUAL testimony. They weren’t saying “you’re a liar, and we don’t believe you, and here is why we still think you are lying, because XYZ shows you’re wrong.” they just stopped with “you’re a liar.”
the Meadows thing with the HUD official was appalling. Someone on MSNBC talked about it last night and they were like, “you could tell it fell flat almost as soon as he did it and he pivoted away from it.” She was a total prop, and I’m not here for her whole “the Rs didn’t use me as a prop.” Yes they did. It was a ludicrous stunt.
and jim Jordan can DIAF.
GOP: “You’re a proven liar. Why should we take your word for it?”
Cohen: “I’m not asking for you to take my word for it, I’m asking you to see the receipts I brought.”
That’s a huge reason why he came across as so credible-he brought evidence. Additionally, he has literally NOTHING to lose at this point.
Yes. And I think another reason he seemed credible is that he didn’t throw Trump under the bus for everything, even defending him regarding rumored abuse of Melania. Also, he was composed and couldn’t be rattled, unlike, say Brett Kavanaugh. He had zero f$%^s to give.
You could tell he found the Republicans as idiotic and exhausting as we did. His facial expressions at times were comical, by the end you could tell he was ready to GTFO and go to jail, lol.
Exactly, Esmom.
When Trump-supporters scream about Cohen being a liar, then do they also think that he was lying about Melania being hit? Was he lying about the pee tape as well? Either he’s a liar or he’s not, you know?
Oh he definitely got rattled a bit at times, and fought back – especially by the end he was really snippy. But I don’t blame him because I think I would be too if I sat through that hearing. Kavanaugh came off as snippy and rattled right off the bat.
I loved when he said SHAME ON YOU to Jordan lol
I thought he was credible and he came across as smarter than I had previously given his credit for.
Based on his facial expressions and exasperated demeanour at the Republicans – he was like ‘just throw me in jail already its bound to be more pleasant experience than this’. During the whole ‘boxes in storage’ saga he was trying so hard not to roll his eyes.
He was rattled and snippy at times but kept his cool and I think just infuriated the R’s even more.
All of this AND he already got jail time for lying, KNOWS he will get more tacked on if he does it again, knows Meuller and SDNY are watching every second like hawks, and last but not least, he knows it’s being televised to many, many millions of people.
And the fact that they kept pointing out that he’s a liar was ridiculous. We all already know this. Obviously. Pointing it out is just asinine. The man is going to jail for lying. Duh!! I don’t think it was affected at all and I honestly don’t know how they didn’t see that.
Cohen aged about 20 years. He’s broken like he used to break others. He has nothing to lose. That makes him dangerous.
It’s all happening….
I don’t buy that they didn’t expect to win. Cohen detailed how Trump will literally do anything to win. Do we seriously believe he was running a campaign with the expectation of losing? By saying they didn’t expect to win makes the Russian collusion look less treasonous, but they were most definitely in it to win it.
Oh, he absolutely wanted to win. He just didn’t want any of the responsibility that came with it.
Actually, Cohen has loads to lose if he is caught lying. He could have new charges, a longer sentence, less chance for early release, etc. Look what happened to Manafort.
The free ride for people lying to Congress seems to be over since the Democrats took over as the majority on committees. The Republicans had stalled and refused to call witnesses and refused to issue subpoenas, in addition to releasing outright false statements about their conclusions. The Democrats came back from holidays ready to change all that.
Cohen is going to be especially useful to the committees because he is also naming names of other people they can question. Those others will be risking perjury charges if they lie under oath. They may assume that Trump will pardon them, but it might be dawning on them that by the time they are convicted – he may not be President, one way or another. Or he might decide to throw them under the bus rather than incur more obstruction of justice charges for himself.
Based on Ivana’s deposition, I don’t believe that trump is incapable of hitting a woman. But I supposed it’s very possible Cohen believes that. He seems to have worshipped donny boy at one point. So sad. If I didn’t have a brother who worships trump I’d find it hard to buy. But I do and I do.
I will say I never believed there was a tape of that. It was too ray rice. Pretty obviously made up and the idea was from the rice case.
In don’t think Trump is a woman beater. I think his ego is wrapped up in impressing women and Melania knows this and holds herself slightly separate from him to ensure he still Feels he needs to work to keep her. Not the psychological profile of an abuser.
Well, I believe his ex wife who testified in a deposition that he beat and raped her.
I don’t believe there was a video. Trump of all people is going to know that there are videos in the elevators in Trump Tower or wherever they were. I don’t think that he beat any of his wives on a regular basis, but I can believe that he lashes out when he’s angry or frustrated. I kind of cant believe I just typed that about the president.
I fully believe he was a wife beater but was too old by the time Melania rolled around so I believe it’s possible he’s not one now.
What’s infuriating is that the Trump sheep don’t care. Fox refused to cover the hearing or Cummings’ comments afterward. All the Murdoch papers are saying Cohen’s testimony “helped” Trump, especially with his base. I’m so disheartened. This man will never be pushed out of office. Cohen showed up with receipts. He even said “I know you say I’m a liar, so I’ve brought documents, so you don”t have to believe ME.”
The the prop black woman is taking a leave of absence from NYCHA so she can defend Trump full-time. So there’s that. She makes me ashamed to be black.
It’s not that they don’t care. Their beliefs have the foundation that anything they don’t like is bad and wrong and evil. Anything, ANYTHING that challenges that must be dismissed else the demon self-reflection take hold and they realise how their life has become a self-inflicted atrocity that they pass on to their kids.
This was the trending news on Fox last night:
https://twitter.com/skmcp/status/1100997020247044096?s=21
Hi, @BTS – Totally understand how you feel about the prop black lady, because Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg make me feel that way about being Jewish. Hang in there.
Thanks, Cannibell. Yeah, I can totally see that.
The Murdoch newspapers and Fox report what Trump has paid them to report.
I was shaken by this statement “I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. And this is why I agreed to appear before you today,” Cohen said of Trump.
I’ve long believed that and it’s why every day I hope he has a massive heart attack. I guess it was chilling to hear someone who knows him so well confirm my fears, but it wasn’t surprising. Thats who trump is. Anyone who believes hed make a concession speech has been in a coma.
Almost every hour of every day I wish him ⚰️, mainly so he can’t enjoy the riches he’s piled up while in office.
It’s chilling. I can believe it, too. Trump won’t rest until he’s torn this country asunder.
Yeah, that is definitely one of my biggest fears. Although the military would never back him and I am not entirely sure the deplorables would put their bodies on the lines for Trump.
He was installed to destroy the USA in every possible way. Mostly by embarassement, death by a thousand facepalms.
I’m honestly not worried about that. If he refuses to leave, then they’ll just have to haul him out in handcuffs.
And his supporters are mostly lazy, stupid, disorganized people, so there’s not going to be any civil war either. Likely some feeble vandalism, probably some hate crimes, but the U.S. military isn’t going to support Trump once he’s voted out of office.
To your second paragraph–I agree. As we’ve seen, there are a handful of Trump supporters that are batshit crazy but I think most of them are all talk. It’s similar to the Alt-Right/White Nationalist crowd in that whenever they plan some sort of rally or *yuge* white power gathering, only a dozen or so show up and are met with thousands of counter-protestors. In reality, we outnumber them.
He may refuse to cooperate with the transition but that can be remedied by going to the Cabinet agencies for information. The inauguration can take place without him present. The White House “ushers” know their jobs and duties and his stuff will be packed up and moved out as the new President climbs the stage in front of the Capitol with the Chief Justice, even if he tries to throw Melania in front of the moving van. As soon as Roberts swears in the new president, all armed forces must take orders only from the new commander in chief or they are committing treason. The Secret Service will drag him out if he refuses to leave.
He may refuse to cooperate with the transition but that can be remedied by going to the Cabinet agencies for information. The inauguration can take place without him present. The White House “ushers” know their jobs and duties and his stuff will be packed up and moved out as the new President climbs the stage in front of the Capitol with the Chief Justice, even if he tries to throw Melania in front of the moving van. As soon as Roberts swears in the new president, all armed forces must take orders only from the new commander in chief or they are committing treason. The Secret Service will drag him out if he refuses to leave.
Getting up off their laze boy and shutting off Fox News would take way too much effort. Yeah, he refuses to leave I’m sure fbi and secret service would be happy to drag him out.
The Republicans may have waked up from their trance by then and just not nominated Trump for 2020, if he isn’t already in prison or in exile.
What is really worrisome to me is that I don’t see the kind of intensive steps we need to at least get correct vote tallies in 2020 and also to prevent blocking of so many voters from actually casting their ballots. We have been having big problems with at least our Presidential elections since 2004, when the machines were pushed in. We need to go back to paper or at least have verifiable paper backup as well as mandatory hand recounts of the paper ballots.
Yep. I look to next year with an ungodly amount of anxiety. That’s it. That’s our last chance to right it before it becomes a true national crisis, and it’ll be ugly no matter how it goes down. Vulnerable people are going to suffer no matter what.
This is the truth of the matter. Well-to-do cis-het white American citizens will be mostly okay, though their 401(k)s might suffer. Vulnerable people — minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ, disfavored religious minorities, disabled people, people in poverty — are going to get hit hard, even worse than right now. At least that is what I am afraid of.
@smee – I totally believe that all hell will break loose with the deplorables if he doesn’t win 2020. There are enough of them to cause some serious havoc. He’ll be dragged out by his heels by the secret service kicking and screaming, hopefully directly to jail.
ITA, Jaded, I can hardly stand to think of all hell breaking loose via the deplorables if he loses, and I just know it will. I’m in the south, and we have enough of his moonshine fueled crazies who are totally uncivilized.
Gawd I’ve never looked so forward to anything quite as much, but equally frightened. Just hopin’ maybe the fried chicken can kick in a bit and save us.
Nonsense. Cohen said what he was told to say. He sounded like a liar who got caught lying so he is tap dancing because he doesn’t want to spend the entire three years in prison.
Good to see the Trump-defending Republicans accusing Michael Cohen of being a bad man because he is a liar, a tax cheat and an adulterer, because I would hate to go a full 24 hour period without drowning in HyGOPrisy.
My favourite part was watching Jim Jordan puffed up with the kind of righteous anger that would have been really f***ing helpful back when dozens of college kids were being sexually abused by their wrestling coach/doctor under his care.
Jordan was the Republican designated attack dog, but I wasn’t impressed. All he did was yell and call Cohen a lying liar who lies. The man practically salivated over the chance to go after Cohen, but none of his hits landed. I laughed when one of the Republicans (Meadows maybe) started to say loudly “ When we were in charge…” and Cummings cut him off. Cummings ran a tight ship and I loved it!
That poster!! Liar, liar, pants on fire! Middle School level shenanigans.
Lordy, I hope SNL’s very best writers are on this.
Jordan’s the ranking member of the committee so by House rules that his role. He made a fool of himself
My favorite part was when Stacey Plaskett rolled her eyes and told Jordan to be quiet.
Stacey was just my favorite part in general. That whole “Thank God the Democratic majority can walk and chew gum at the same” comment was beautiful. She seems like such an amazingly organized, straight to business kind of woman – I’m glad I got to see her at work.
And I loved how Cohen said “shame on you” to Gym Jordan.
The Republicans were crazy. Gym Jordan makes my blood boil with the way he tries to be cleverly witty and rude. Texas’ Chip Roy’s speed talking about everything but Michael Cohen made my head spin, North Dakotas’ Kelly Armstrong needed to calm down and stop shaking, and Meadows needed a punch in the face.
Gym’s smugness was so unseemly, like when he triumphantly said “you were never asked to the dance” regarding Cohen wanting a WH job. I loved how Cohen kept pushing back and basically owned him and all the other GOP buffoons.
Jordan, in his shirtsleeves and smart guy glasses, his whiny voice incapable of uttering anything of substance, is utterly repugnant.
I believed Cohen when he said he didn’t want a job at the WH – he seemed to prefer being the power behind the throne, so to speak.
His rationale made sense but the deplorables on Twitter, including Don Jr, were obsessed with this point, saying it was a “known fact” that Cohen was lobbying everyone for the Chief of Staff job. Who knows.
I thought it was interesting that they latched onto this and pretty much nothing else, lol.
I wonder if Gym even owns a suit jacket or if maybe his shirts are just too big and baggy to fit the jacket over. When he’s always smirking, it looks like he has no teeth in the mouth that speaks those dumb wise ass comments like “wasn’t asked to the dance.” Someone needs to wrestle him out of there.
Honestly, if it is true that Cohen wanted the chief of staff job, then Jr. shouldn’t be bragging about it. When someone knows where this many bodies are buried, you give him the job.
DUH
Wasn’t Jim Jordan embroiled in some kids sex scandal in high school while he was an athletic coach? I believe, I may be mistaken, kids were abused and he did not report the allegations and denied he knew about it. The Republicans were disgraceful yesterday. All they did scream “you are a liar, …. you are going to jail,… you are a convicted liar”. Although MC came in saying I lied and I’m going to prison.
College. Ohio State. Hundreds (!) of athletes have come forward about abuse that he could not have been unaware of. And somehow he’s managed to dodge that bullet. So far anyway.
He’s still embroiled. The case is ongoing
The repubs were all obviously students at lindsey graham’ s School Of Manufactured Outrage, attacking a witness the way they’ve attacked the press or the truth. Witnesses against scumbags seldom come with squeaky clean credentials.
Exactly. I can’t remember who said it, but they referred to mob informants who testified in the 80s. They were scumbags too, but their testimony took down the bigger fish. If we didn’t accept the testimony of the people who were there, as reprehensible as they are, there’d be almost no convictions!
Proud of the two representatives from Boston on the committee: Stephen Lynch putting the GOP whiners in their place with some old school Southie realness about their agenda and Queen Ayanna (Kitten’s Rep) coolly glaring at the evil and shining a light on the truth.
YES, LightPurple!
Ayanna’s raised eyebrow is a whole MOOD.
And she asked questions about the Trump Foundation and the charity fraud, opening all that for more investigation. Eric and Ivanka should be shaking.
Gomez and Ocasio-Cortez asked great questions about his taxes, insurance fraud, and other potential real estate fraud scenarios. Several others asked for names of others who could corroborate. This was not a one-day show. They are taking names. I expect a bunch of subpoenas and quite a few more hearings to come from this.
Yes, it was so great to see the Dems actually working to get actionable info instead of trying to derail the proceedings or resort to a flimsy, one-note attack on Cohen. They all showed the GOP — and everyone watching — how it’s done.
As a German I am… astonished. If one percent of what is going on in the USA would happen in Germany, people would riot against the chancellor. How is all of that possible?
As a fellow German I would say: currently, yes. But if you compared the GOP to the AfD it would be exactly the same. (I just hope our new fascists will never become the majority. Then we’d be just as f****d.)
That’s because Germany has already had their Hitler.
The USA may be just having their Hitler now.
Well, history repeating at its best.
@ZIP: You are right, but there are also many safeguards now for example in the GG that would prevent our history to be repeated in that way. You mentioned AfD, which is a right party yes, but it can only operate under several constitutional rules. If this party would be forbidden, the control would be lost over it.
@Birdie:
They did not manage to ban the NPD, they won’t manage to ban the AfD either. Just look at what the “Verfassungsschutz” (protection of the constitution) is doing. Nothing. This is no surprise if you think of who has been their lead until recently. And who has been protecting said lead for whatever reason…
The AfD has been openly racist for many years, they became even more racist and fascist in the past three years. Their leading members are openly fascist, lying conspiracy idiots who want to get rid of our countries’ democratic structures. If they get into power they will succeed. Who cares about the constitution if there is nobody there to stop you? Look at what happened in Turkey or what is happening in Hungary… Politicians can manipulate and threaten people & media in a way they are given the power to destroy democracy. This happened before Hitler, with Hitler and after Hitler. It can happen again anytime.
That’s exactly what it is.
And my God! This thing went on about 8 hours!
I’ve sat on court martial boards that were shorter.
Speaking of which, there is all this talk about being a “rat” and snitch and “worse thing to be called when going to prison.”
No, it’s not. “Pedophile” is the worse thing to be called as it should be.
Besides, I was stationed on a base with a federal prison for people like him and it’s not the same.
The prisoners have it pretty good.: Decent food, baseball field, basketball court, weight room, decent quarters, cruise around base on golf carts and they mostly tend the grounds like mowing, trimming, planting flowers, changing light bulbs in the buildings…
We often joked that they had it easier than we did.
He’ll be fine and he’ll probably be released early due to good behavior or overcrowding or something and I’m sure his family has assets to, “get by.”
@Nancy pants, have you heard the saying, “snitchers get stitches”. When you are called a Rat in prison you are a marked man for being killed and carved p/knife. Yesterday on DM there was a man a man in organized crime saying he believes Michael Cohen is going to be killed in prison because he’s labeled a 🐀. He said 45 supporters in prison loves him and will kill MC. I’m not saying this, you can check the DM. Btw, Don the Con could care less if he get killed, IMO.
@ZIP: I don’t support the ban of parties like these, because what will happen next? All the politicians and followers begin underground activities not transparent to the government anymore. There is no “control” anymore. Banning would make the situation worse. The price of democracy unfortunately allows these nuts to have a say.
B n A: Yes I have; I’m quite familiar but Cohen isn’t going to that kind of prison.
He’s probably going to Otisville which is called, “A castle behind bars.” and “Club Fed.”
Did you read my first comment? I know about these cushy, cupcake prisons.
He’s not going to any of the most dangerous prisons in America.
I live about 3 hours from a SUPER MAX prison here in CO.
Do you know who all is living down there?
You wouldn’t want to meet them and there is also a large women’s prison in Canon City which is nearby.
He’s not going to anything like that, however, if you ever make it out here, the Royal Gorge train and raft trips next to the prisons are fairly nice and there probably isn’t going to be an escape.
Our population is also nearly four times that of Germany’s. There are organized protests every day here. It’s just impossible for them all to be publicized on the news.
This being said, a Constitutional crisis of this extent has never been seen in this generation before. It hasn’t sunk into a lot of people’s minds just how serious the stakes really are. Or if they have, the reason they’re doing nothing is because they’re counting on it.
We hear about protests regularly and also that most don’t approve of him. What was meant there though, is probably more “why is he still in power?”. There is no way a German chancellor or prime minister would politically survive this kind of prosecution for so long.
That responsibility falls on the apathetic voters (and vote suppressors) of 2016, unfortunately. People don’t like to think about the long term impact of not being involved in the political process. Ultimately, the result was that the Republicans took the House, Senate, presidency, and now they have the majority on the judicial branch. Now that they have power, they won’t give it up, which is why they’ve hitched the wagon to 45 and won’t budge. Democrats taking back the House is only a fragment of the power structure necessary to get rid of him.
These safety guards were put in place for the sake of checks and balances, to avoid usurping power against the executive branch. Unfortunately, the system is an outdated setup that benefits less populated states for a country that was significantly smaller than it is today, and it doesn’t take into consideration what would happen if multiple branches are compromised by the same corruption.
Here in Canada they are seriously talking about forcing our PM to resign because he is accused of putting pressure on the Attorney-General to go easy on a huge Quebec company, to protect Canadian jobs.
If true, it’s not great, but it is politics-as-usual. Imagine if Trudeau did — Birdie says — one-hundreth of the things Trump has said/done/been accused of!!
Most of the GOP are trash, but some of them have had long careers and whenever I watch spectacles like what I saw yesterday I can’t help but wonder why they are so slavishly devoted to someone like 45. Like, THIS is the person you want to be remembered for defending to the death??
It seems certain that whatever Putin has on 45, what he has on the GOP must be 10 times worse.
Well, it’s VERY easy to understand when you recognize that Trump has 90% approval rating among Republicans. The Republicans in red districts want to keep their seats. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I also suspect that a lot of them have been engaging in dirty tricks for quite some time now. I would wager that many of these guys are protecting themselves as much as they’re protecting Trump.
I believe there have been a number of articles out there now discussing how many of the Republicans are compromised by their Russian contacts as well. The Russians gave an inordinate amount of money to the NRA which funneled it to the Republican candidates. A number of the Republican senators and congressmen have been to Russia to capitalize on real estate deals, etc. Trump is not alone in his business dealings and transfer of money with Russia.
#individual1
Cohen knows a lot more than he’s allowed to say. He did drop the tidbit re the SDNY having an equally powerful left hand to Mueller’s right.
The GOP representatives in attendance yesterday know their “king” is doomed. And when, not if, Emperor Zero’s time comes, a whole 45-man roster of white republicans will be saying goodbye to their loved ones for getting into bed with EZ and his grift machine.
Good times ahead people!
Hi Eric, I have to say that yesterday I felt the most hope I’ve felt in a while, realizing how much Mueller and his team have locked down. Those boxes of Cohen’s were a big part of it, I’m sure, lol.
I hope I didn’t jinx it!
Yes, they referenced his discussion with Adam Schiff several times (remember when Jim Jordan mocked Cohen for being vague? “talked about topics?”) This was because Cummings and Schiff agreed that Cohen would talk about domestic Trump stuff with the oversight committee and wouldn’t talk about foreign affairs until he goes to the foreign affairs committee . This is why the Republicans were butthurt about “rules about what they could talk about.” They were all skating around something (maybe something we don’t know yet?) and trying to set him up as a liar so when he goes into Foreign Relations, we don’t believe him.
Cohen also had a closed door meeting with the committee the day before. Who knows what was said in there. We only got parts of what he can disclose.
Matthew Calamari. That is all.
lols
I think the worst thing was that none of what he said was surprising. It was just a sad confirmation that Trump really is the dumpster fire we think he is. And that the GOP has sold their souls.
There is nothing—nothing—he can do that will make the GOP turn on him. If Trump isn’t voted out of office, I don’t think there’ll be any way to end this sh*t show, even if Mueller were to prove he’s broken every law on the books.
I believe the plan of attack is to get him through his financial crimes. This seemed to be what was laid out yesterday. Not unlike how they finally took down Al Capone. What transpired yesterday was a detailing of a number of financial crimes by Trump. His assets can be seized. If they start squeezing him financially, he may jump ship and possibly even leave the country. And then we can all do a happy dance.
Hey Emperor Zero
When you return from getting dog-walked by Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, make sure you say hello to Executive-2.
Can’t believe you finally went to Vietnam, 40 years later, and died there.
Oh, please put that on his Twitter so the world can see!
Jane
I look at twitter but I’m not on it. I prefer this space here to volcano vent about Emperor Zero because
1) I’m not trolled by bots and MAGAts
2) there’s an equal number of intelligent peeps on here and I read quite a bit of their snark
3) of Kaiser’s takes
Feel free to steal it and post in your name or pass it along to a friend, friend
Thank you- I tried to troll him way back before he got the nomination but it did’t work, maybe it’s time to try again ]:-)
“Volcano vent” 🙂
i saw a tweet that said drumpf is coming back a war hero cause he got shot down in Vietnam. lol
First I have to say Elijah Cummings closing statement was so powerful I got a tear in my eye.
I also thought that the nerve of Don the Con telling Michael to send his high school, colleges not to give out his grades under threats. At the same time Don the Con was screaming that Barack Obama was a bad student and he must release his college transcripts, and he was not even a citizen.
Then while Don the Con was parading Bills women on the stage at one of their debates to embarrass Hillary he was paying off women he had affairs to keep it from the press.
We in New York area knew Don the Con was racist, a con man and a liar, now its in the history books for generations to read when we are not around.
When the deplorables pretend that the Con man is great for the economy that’s why they voted for him now we can call them liars. The economy is falling now, what will they say in 2020, will they still vote for him or are they voting for him because they want to keep America white. Time will tell.
I actually do find some humor in the fact that these imbeciles are so stupid that they would threaten schools about something that schools can’t do anyway. State and federal laws protect school records from release without consent. What isn’t protected? Stupid letters threatening the schools. Fordham released a copy within hours of Cohen talking about it yesterday.
Good for Fordham.
I have a suspicion that Trump transferred from Fordham because he did something that would get him expelled. Made no sense otherwise, he was just getting a garden variety economics degree, was a lousy student, and just needed an educational deferment to stay out of Vietnam. Plus Fordham was much closer to home and he continued to go home every weekend after transferring to UPenn.
I’m glad he brought that up. I know the birther thing is his crowning achievement, when Obama released his long-form birth certificate to stop all the idiotic speculation, Trump immediately pivoted to his education (dog-whistling that a black man couldn’t possibly be smart enough to attend an Ivy League school). I wish more people would remember that.
Personally, I found the detail about SAT scores to be hysterical.
Also, I have to disagree and say that I was profoundly disturbed by how the bulk of the Democrats were poor public speakers, including Cummings. He was a horrible public speaker. The best speakers were the woman from the Virgin Islands and the newbies that spoke after the last break. They were articulate, to the point and asked questions that yielded relevant info that can be used to subpoena future witnesses. I have no idea what everyone else was doing.
Yesterday, we saw, for the first time in a long time, the power of our Constitution in action. I encourage everyone to contact the House oversight committee or Representative Cummings (local district numbers are usually more accessible) by phone or email to thank them for doing their jobs yesterday. This is how we take our country back.
Absolutely, LP.
I know how powerless and despondent everyone feels right now.
I KNOW how frustrating it is to see this criminal enterprise take over our country.
But we have to take solace in the fact that we won the House and we can now start the process of applying check and balances. Will he get impeached? No. 25th Amendment? NO. That won’t happen. We can be realistic about our expectations and still acknowledge that what’s happening is very important and a step in the right direction.
We are getting his crimes on record and history will never forget.
Yes. Well said. Cummings is a national treasure. He was amazing, especially his closing. I had a tear in my eye, just like Cohen did.
I grew up in Cummings district and now I have Jamie Raskin. I was so happy with both yesterday.
I went to school in and around Cummings district. The man is a national treasure. I haven’t lived in Baltimore for more than a decade, but I felt so proud of my state and representatives yesterday.
He really did such a fantastic job. National Treasure is usually over-used but not in this case IMO.
I seriously don’t understand why these republicans have hitched their wagon to trump, he’s obviously headed off a cliff and straight to hell. And destroying our nation along the way. Dr. Frankenstein eventually realized he had created a monster, when will the GOP wake up to their self created horror?
Power. A hefty percentage of the Republican base is still loyal to them. They won’t do anything to undermine their position, even if it means betraying the very Constitution they are sworn to uphold.
Aang
There’s a 45-man roster of corrupt republicans who got in bed with the Russians and Emperor Zero knows it (since EZ is the pillow in the bed).
EZ goes down, they follow like dominoes.
My husband mentioned that he thinks Trump or Trumps people have dirt on all the GOP
Members who have a hard on for Trump. I also think they are in bed with the Russians in some way and are grasping for straws trying to hang on to their power and keep the house of cards in tact. No one in that party has integrity… they need to be burned down to the ground and a whole new party be built in their place.
Also, I loved Cummings closing statements – where he was like, what are you all talking about, our first hearing? this isn’t our first hearing!!! and talked about how Cohen deserves a second chance and a chance at redemption.
Yes, his specificity about what the previous two hearings were about was priceless. He just nailed them, Jordan especially, for that flat out lie.
With their nasty pasts I don’t know how Jordan and Gaetz had the balls to accuse Cohen of being dirty. I hope someone is compiling dossiers on them right now.
Gaetz needs to be charged with witness tampering.
Haha, wow. I was working, so I didn’t get to see this in real time, but man Cohen went for broke. He does not give a sh*t anymore, and who can blame him? Trump will throw his own children under the bus when it comes down to it. He’s already going to jail, and there’s nothing to lose.
Trump, when he has nothing to lose, will destroy us all. He is sick, he is old, he is evil. If he doesn’t lose the power to ruin us all, he WILL try.
There was so much than can be taken away from yesterday hearings that it would take a week to dissect the whole hearing.
Something I forget to mention and I don’t believe anyone mentioned it this morning was Rep Mark Meadows parading this black woman, Ms Lynn Patton, HUD, in front of the panel to prove that Don the Con is not racist. I have to say shame on Ms Patton to allow herself to be paraded out like in slave days when the white men would parade the slaves out for actions. I hope she is ashamed of herself.
Thanks Rep Rashida Tlaib for calling out meadows for his racist games.
You know, in the year 2019, I didn’t think I’d hear the “BUT I HAVE BLACK FRIENDS!!” argument used seriously in a House committee hearing of all things, but somehow, I’m not surprised.
I’ve lost hope that anything will happen to Trump, Trump Jr, Ivanka or Jared when it comes to being indicted or arrested. Nothing has happened for almost two years and I don’t think it ever will. There’s always rumors that Trump or his son are “worried” but nothing ever comes of it. Hopefully he’ll be voted out in 2020.
An investigation of this magnitude takes time. The Dems just took back the House, so they are literally just starting with their investigations.
Mueller’s team and the SDNY office are pouring through tens of millions of pages of information. All that data first must be subpoenaed or obtained via warrants. You’re talking e-discovery on a level that most law firms never see. Text messages, e-mails, hard-copy documents, etc. – all from different sources.
Once you actually get your hands on all that information, then you’ve got to start reviewing and tying it together. And you have to interview witnesses and obtain written discovery responses under oath – and compare all of that against other witness information to suss out who’s lying and who’s corroborating one another. That takes months at best, most likely years.
At this point, I think 2019 will encompass numerous House investigations and the release of the Mueller report, both of which will be damaging enough that the GOP might be forced to run someone else in 2020. I think Trump will blame his inability to run again on the Dems not “treating him fairly” and the GOP will find a more likeable candidate for 2020 while still painting the Dems as evil. He’ll eventually be charged with myriad crimes after he leaves the presidency. Hopefully, the swing voters will have a good memory and vote Dem in 2020.
@OliviaJoy, ITA. Nothing is going to happen to any of them. How many times have we seen headlines that lead us all to think “We’ve got him!” and then…nothing. Business as usual the next day, with him right back in the Oval Office, f-cking up our country. His comments to Lester Holt should have ended him immediately, but literally NO ONE did ANYTHING. I’ve completely given up hope.
@AR I do see what you’re saying, but this isn’t like Watergate. There is already so, so much publicly available proof — much of it spoken or written by 45 himself — that our POTUS is a criminal, and the country has just carried on as usual. We also know that it doesn’t matter if all of the investigations produce damning results — all of the Repubs are going to stick with him and nothing will happen. They probably won’t even release Mueller’s report, and they’ll most likely lie about its contents.
I understand the frustrations. But don’t forget that the SDNY investigation will go through a court of law. There’s no Senate full of GOPers that can tamp that down. I work in the legal industry with courts. Much, much smaller cases that I’ve worked on take years. Justice moves slowly, but it does. This process is not a 5K, it’s a marathon the likes of which our country probably has never seen before.
I know what you mean. It’s depressing to watch people cheat and steal so publicly and so shamelessly. It feels like there’s always a way out for the rich to escape any consequences of their actions. Like the 2008 crash, they privatize the profits, and subsidize the losses.
Have faith. RICO and tax evasion charges are easier to prove than treason.
I hope Celebitchy starts following AOC because she is ONE MILLION PERCENT the biggest rock star on the planet, and proved that yesterday completely. She is not only drop-dead gorgeous, and super-cool, but she is (as they are saying now) the only adult in the room. Yesterday was all ridiculous grandstanding, other than AOC’s clear questioning which got to the heart of the scandals.
I wish all articles were only about the Duchess of Sussex and AOC. With a few cute boys thrown in from time to time! 😉
All the freshmen at the end were very good.
I disagree. I like AOC, but I thought all the Dems were asking good questions. Her questions were good because they clearly left the door open for his tax returns (which has always been a goal anyway.) but the other Dems were asking very good questions as well.
I also highly doubt that wasn’t planned in advance. There’s definitely a tactical approach at play in these sorts of hearings. There was probably a fair bit of discussion about how they would frame questions, in what order, and who got to ask them.
Not downplaying AOC’s contributions at all, but let’s not pretend teamwork isn’t what empowers the motion, either.
AOC had a great tweet about her staff (and I’m paraphrasing) getting paid $52K and how people probably aren’t doubting why that it is after seeing her performance yesterday. I really loved that she gave credit to her staff.
But yes, to me the freshman class was fire yesterday, with AOC killing it with her five minutes. It was definitely a well-orchestrated takedown.
Yes. The Democrats are working as a group. There are no rock stars but rather a really good rock group, each musician playing their own instrument to blend into the whole.
I still don’t think Cohen is a capable lawyer. I think he was prepped by an OUTSTANDING team of lawyers, however. And he’s good with the comeback lines.
Canadian here who has been watching the hearing and can I say that I worship Cummings. His closing words were clearly sending Cohen a message that he appreciates and feels sympathy for him despite his crimes. When he mentioned Cohen’s daughter walking with a cane due to recent hip surgery and how Cohen must be so worried for her I got tears in my eyes. He was steady as a rock, strong and handled the hearing with grace and diplomacy but took no prisoners.
Same, Jaded. I got teary eyed. Cummings is a treasure, and damnit America – you better treat that man well.
Our representative here in Nashville, Tennessee is Jim Cooper. He questioned Cohen well, and I was glad to see that he got him to admit that Trump has on his personal staff people who intimidate or hurt people when Trump needs them to. Chilling.
Seeing the unprofessional, hostile behavior from GOP reps on full display in the hearing makes me hopeful that more Democrats will come forward now to run for public office in Tennessee. Our Dem party here lost big in the Midterms, but we do have good Dem mayors, growing population of oursiders coming in to live here (Amazon H2Q is coming to town) and a strong Dem party leader, Mary Mancini. Many thanks for o Rep. Cooper for keeping our hope alive!
I took this from a Ken Gude thread on Twitter. But here he lays out the felonies for which Cohen implicated Trump:
1. Conspiracy to defraud the United States (collusion) – Cohen’s allegation that Trump and Stone spoke about the impending Wikileaks release of DNC emails before they were released with Stone asserting to Trump that he had communicated with Assange
2. False statements – In response to a written question from Mueller, Trump reportedly denied ever having spoken to Stone about Wikileaks. Cohen said this is false.
3. False statements – In response to a written question from Mueller, Trump reportedly denied knowing about Don Jr’s Trump Tower Meeting with Russians. Cohen said this is false.
4. Campaign finance violations – Cohen provided a check that shows that Trump reimbursed him for the $130,000 he paid to Stormy Daniels to conceal their affair.
5. Conspiracy to defraud the United States (election fraud) – Cohen alleged that Trump directed him and Allen Weisselberg of the Trump Organization to conceal his affair with Stormy Daniels with the intention of fraudulently influencing an election.
6. False statements on a loan application – Cohen brought Trump’s partial financial records for 2011-2013 that Cohen alleged showed that Trump falsely inflated the value of his assets to obtain a loan in order to purchase the Buffalo Bills
7. Insurance fraud – Cohen alleged that Trump would make false insurance claims
8. Tax fraud – Cohen alleged that Trump would knowingly provide inaccurate lower values of his properties in order to fraudulently obtain tax benefits
9. Witness tampering – Cohen said that Trump’s threatening tweets were an attempt to intimidate him, saying Trump could do “a lot” to hurt him and his family.
10. Suborning perjury – Cohen says that in a meeting in the White House, Trump indicated that he wanted Cohen to provide a false message saying “No Russia. No collusion.
11. Suborning perjury – Cohen says that Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow edited his Congressional testimony to falsely shorten the duration of the negotiations on the Trump Moscow project.
12. Obstruction of a Congressional proceeding – The witness tampering and the suborning perjury constitutes obstruction of a Congressional proceeding
13. Perjury – Cohen says that Trump’s 2013 sworn testimony that he wouldn’t recognize Felix Sater was clearly false, explaining that Sater had an office on the same floor as Trump in Trump Tower.
14. Illegal use of charity assets for personal benefit – Cohen alleged that Trump directed him to get a straw bidder to buy a portrait of Trump at an auction and that Trump then directed the Trump Foundation to reimburse the fake bidder with its assets.
I don’t know how much faith to put in all of that but damn does it make me feel better.
Just a side note:
Years ago, my mother was the VP of a national bank.
She was there for about 30 years and started as a Cashier and worked her way up.
Then, after nearly 30 years, a new President came in and he was also a Major in the Army Ntl. Guard.
My mom retired because she knew the bank Pres was up to shadiness but she hadn’t quite been able to get enough proven evidence to get him arrested /convicted but she didn’t have to because he was dumb.
The President was caught using his Troops’ SS#s and names, addresses, their kid’s info. etc. to do greasy, illegal, money things and HE went to prison.
That was years ago and he was just a bank president.
IJS
WOW. What a piece of sh*t.
And thanks for the reminder that the rich and powerful are NOT impenetrable. I am certain that Trump will get his. Sooner or later he and his family WILL be brought to justice.
I mean, any hit on Trump is welcome. But after all the things we’ve seen Trump do with our own eyes, I feel like having proof he paid off a porn star to be silent about an affair is, like, the 257th least presidential thing he’s done.
Favorite summation quote of the Republican lunacy on display yesterday especially Jordan and Meadows. This is from this great article https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26558985/republicans-michael-cohen-hearing-disgrace-trump
in Esquire “This was a vivid look into the chronic ward of the prion disease that has eaten away the higher functions of American conservatism”
Perfect.
Wait. Here is one more about the Repubs during the hearing: “These are the complete creatures of the talk-show culture, the perfect products of two and three generations of gerrymandered in-breeding.”
Great article, thanks for sharing. I also read the linked one about Don Jr. Nice to see that someone loathes him as much as I do.
I lived through Watergate. The way the Republicans are acting now is the EXACT same way as they did defending Nixon until they just could not turn a blind eye to it although most had to be dragged kicking and screaming
Cohen reminded me of John Dean. Facts, figures, timelines, etc…He was not going to be Nixon’s fall guy and although he was granted “immunity” he actually spent 4 months in prison. Dean had nothing to lose by lying and neither does Cohen.
Nixon saved his ass by resigning before impeachment. Trump is so damned arrogant and stupid he will not believing he is above the law. It will remain to be seen how many more rats flee the sinking ship.
History has a strange way of repeating itself
Cohen is a liar. And his testimony made that abundantly clear – even after he pled guilty to being a liar and accepted a sentence in federal prison. He’s a slimy pos.