In the latest episode of our political surreality show, the president of the United States on Wednesday was in high-stakes denuclearization talks even as a congressional committee was arguing over testimony calling him a con man.
The president’s talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un ultimately collapsed. Trump said at a news conference that the breakdown was a result of North Korea’s insistence that all sanctions the United States has imposed on Pyongyang be lifted without the country committing to eliminate its nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, "In a divided nation, a divided Congress confronted a star witness from deep inside Trump world Wednesday and found a rare unity: Republicans and Democrats alike agreed that Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime lawyer and fixer, is a cravenly amoral liar,” says The Washington Post.
The president’s supporters concluded from Cohen’s self-avowed record of lying to protect Trump that he can't be believed, that his late conversion into a severe critic of Trump’s character is proof that Cohen is, as ever, in it for himself.
The president’s critics looked at the same facts, the same confessions and apologies from a man they long considered Trump’s bulldog and saw a redeemed truth teller, the first in a series of witnesses they plan to present to lift the curtain on a president they view as Cohen now does: as a “cheat” and a “con man.”
The House oversight hearing with Cohen, coming in advance of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, heralds what Democrats in Congress view as the long days ahead providing checks and balances on the Oval Office.
For some, the outcome may or may not lead to grounds for impeachment. For others, impeachment can't come fast enough.
"What is certain, though, is the mounting tension,” says The Associated Press. "As the hearings and investigations unfold, Democrats, particularly those running for the White House, may be speeding toward a moment when they have no choice but to consider the I-word.”
"What is certain, though, is the mounting tension,” says The Associated Press. "As the hearings and investigations unfold, Democrats, particularly those running for the White House, may be speeding toward a moment when they have no choice but to consider the I-word.”
This year will be a test for both parties but especially Democrats, says The New York Times. After Wednesday’s testimony from Cohen they'll face a rising chorus from the liberal wing of the party to impeach Trump for what it says is a clear case of a president who defrauded the public about hush payments and business dealings before an election and then lied about it from the White House.
A big question for Democrats is whether, if they move ahead on impeachment with little hope of attracting bipartisan support, they'll risk a backlash at the polls from voters.
“The more you do this, it just fires up the base that thinks that each day he stays in office it endangers the republic,” says Thomas Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who led the Oversight Committee when his party controlled the House. “It’s the old thing about be careful what you ask for.”
For Republicans, Cohen’s allegations once again will require Trump’s followers to decide how long they will stand by a president whose actions threaten not only his administration but also the fate of politicians in the party he leads.
Republican lawmakers on the committee reacted to Cohen’s testimony with derision, attacking him as a convicted perjurer, a Democratic patsy, a liar and a cheat. Yet, as Cohen noted in what the Times calls "one of the most powerful moments of the day," their fierce loyalty to Trump wasn't unlike his own.
“The more you do this, it just fires up the base that thinks that each day he stays in office it endangers the republic,” says Thomas Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who led the Oversight Committee when his party controlled the House. “It’s the old thing about be careful what you ask for.”
For Republicans, Cohen’s allegations once again will require Trump’s followers to decide how long they will stand by a president whose actions threaten not only his administration but also the fate of politicians in the party he leads.
Republican lawmakers on the committee reacted to Cohen’s testimony with derision, attacking him as a convicted perjurer, a Democratic patsy, a liar and a cheat. Yet, as Cohen noted in what the Times calls "one of the most powerful moments of the day," their fierce loyalty to Trump wasn't unlike his own.
“I’m responsible for your silliness because I did the same thing that you’re doing now, for 10 years,” Cohen said. “I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years. I can only warn people — the more people that follow Mr. Trump as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.”
Yet Republicans on the committee from conservative districts have little to lose, says the Times. Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio, who harshly criticized Cohen as a liar headed to prison, appeared to play to the many faithful Trump voters at home, not to mention the president himself.
“They accomplished what they wanted to,” David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said of the Republicans on the panel. “The more that they polarize this and present it as a political exercise, the more everyone runs to the red corner and blue corner. And Trump sits there very popular with the base.”