Republicans can't defend Trump against the substance of Cohen's attacks
Republicans cant defend Trump against the substance of Cohens attacks
All they can do is try to paint Cohen as a liar.
By Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchampzack@vox.com Feb 27, 2019, 1:15pm EST
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohens testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday morning has been damning both for President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress.
Cohen has testified that Trump knew about illegal hush money payments to Stormy Daniels during the campaign, knew about Wikileaks dump of Hillary Clintons emails before they happened, and repeatedly said racist things in private. He has painted a picture of the president as a greedy, untrustworthy, cruel man who cares nothing for the country that he leads.
The Republicans on the committee, led by ranking Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), have spent limited time engaging Cohen on the specifics of these charges. Their responses have instead focused overwhelmingly on trying to discredit Cohen personally as a liar acting out of self-preservation pointing out that he has pled guilty to lying to Congress before. One Republican even trotted out a poster of Cohens face with the caption liar, liar, pants on fire.
But
the logic underlying this charge is profoundly wrong. The fact that Cohen lied before, and even committed financial crimes, doesnt mean that he is doing it now. Time and again, when Republicans pressed Cohen on why he might be lying this time, they could not come with a persuasive explanation leading to House members flailing as Cohen shot down their arguments.
The best argument that Republicans could come up with concedes that Trump employed a guy to lie and commit crimes for him for years, yet still fails to successfully indict his current testimony. That this is the best Trumps defenders in the House GOP caucus could up with shows just how brutal Cohens testimony is for the White House.
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https://www.vox.com/2019/2/27/18243233/michael-cohen-testimony-live-republicans?fbclid=IwAR1QuCW1L0Ia9FFAEf_SVZ-zZQAE4xm4iFTmEbyGzhroo5rrSNQswtOxAeo