Michael Cohen's House testimony

[Fugazi]

@Ann_Hedonia

If he’s glued to Fox News right now, he’s watching Cohen testify. Really. I checked. They are covering the entirety of the hearing, just like CNN and MSNBC. I’m actually watching it on Fox. I want to see if their commentators break in. So far, they haven’t,

Thanks for taking one for the team. Are you still watching Fox? How’s their commentary during the break? Are they pretty much towing the Republican line that Cohen is a liar and nothing he says is true?

[John_Stamos_Left_Ear]

@jsc1953

The most famous quote from the Watergate hearings - “What did the president know and when did he know it?” - came from a Republican. That’s the difference between now and then.

I get what you’re saying however even back then, this quote came from a position of wanting to help Nixon.

What is less well-known is the story behind the question, and perhaps most surprising of all, that it was asked in order to defend President Richard Nixon.

The person who asked the question was Tennessee GOP Sen. Howard Baker Jr. His party credentials were unassailable.

In February 1973, before the hearings began, Baker had a secret Oval Office meeting with Nixon. He told the President the committee’s game plan, which was to start out with minor witnesses in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on major witnesses to appear before the panel. As Nixon later related, Baker suggested having major figures such as White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and top aide John Ehrlichman testify first, “to deflate the whole thing.”

on June 25, former White House Counsel John Dean, who had been fired by Nixon in the spring, started testifying. Reading a 245-page statement to the Committee over the course of two days, he systematically linked Nixon to a pattern of corruption and obstruction of justice. Then the questioning began.

When it was Baker’s turn to interrogate Dean, his goal was to prove that the accusations against the President were based on circumstantial evidence. Baker carefully questioned the former White House lawyer, attempting to prove that he had no direct evidence of the President’s role in the break in or in any cover up. Dean held his own, ultimately testifying that he and Nixon discussed the cover up 35 times.

Baker was subdued after Dean’s testimony… In 1992, he explained to the Associated Press “I believed that it was a political ploy of the Democrats, that it would come to nothing…But a few weeks into that, it began to dawn on me that there was more to it than I thought, and more to it than I liked.”

Brennan Center for Justice

[Smapti]

And we’re back to the R’s attacking Cohen on his taxes.

[John_Stamos_Left_Ear]

@Gatopescado

Well, Goddammit! This bullshit is Cock-Blocking Let’s Make A Deal! :mad:

Far more interesting and worthwhile than this crap.

You should set yourself on fire in protest.

[Smapti]

And now Jordan’s ranting about Buzzfeed.

[John_Stamos_Left_Ear]

@steronz

That was a pretty scathing exchange. “We were all there to protect Trump, just like you are now.”

I was hoping that Cohen would at some point say something along those lines to answer questions about his previous lying for Trump.

[susan]

Foxx and some of the others are clearly reading questions they didn’t write and appear not to understand.

[Smapti]

“Not one question you and your colleagues has asked me about President Trump. I thought that was why I was here.”

[ThelmaLou]

@John_Stamos_Left_Ear

I get what you’re saying however even back then, this quote came from a position of wanting to help Nixon.

…Baker was subdued after Dean’s testimony… In 1992, he explained to the Associated Press “I believed that it was a political ploy of the Democrats, that it would come to nothing…But a few weeks into that, it began to dawn on me that there was more to it than I thought, and more to it than I liked.”

It was a different Republican party back then. You wonder if today’s Pubbies will ever see the light that Baker saw. I’m guessing they’re not hearing anything from Cohen that they didn’t already know or at least suspect (just like the rest of us). Nixon was secretive. Thump is a wide open, disgusting book and always has been.

The Watergate-era Republicans saw Nixon’s dishonesty as hurting their party. Today’s Republicans don’t think thump’s dishonesty, corruption, bigotry, and general smarminess are hurting them all that much. They believe that getting rid of him will hurt them more. Principles be damned. Sickening.

[Smapti]

Connelly pointing out that by the GOP’s standard today, no RICO case could ever be prosecuted.

[RTFirefly]

Rep. Paul Gosar: “You’re a pathological liar! You don’t know truth from falsehood.”

Michael Cohen: “Sir, I’m sorry, are you referring to me or the president?”

[bobot]

Tangentially (at least) related to this thread topic:

White House boots media after Trump faced Cohen question in front of Kim

“…Trump was hit with a spray of shouted questions on Wednesday evening in Vietnam, including one about his former fixer Michael Cohen’s salacious testimony, as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un sat alongside him, chuckling and looking bemused at the media outburst.
Minutes later, the White House barred four American journalists from covering their next event.”

[John_Stamos_Left_Ear]

@ThelmaLou

The Watergate-era Republicans saw Nixon’s dishonesty as hurting their party.

Some of them might have even seen it as hurting America. I think that was possible from them back then.

Today’s Republicans don’t think thump’s dishonesty, corruption, bigotry, and general smarminess are hurting them all that much. They believe that getting rid of him will hurt them more. Principles be damned. Sickening.

Yeah, the crew circa: now doesn’t care about the country and gladly put party ahead of it. Fortunately the 2016 midterms make me think they will get a rude awakening in 2020 that what hurts the country indeed will hurt the Republican brand. We will see.

[Smapti]

Massie is really leaning on this “Cohen can’t be trusted because he agreed to break the law for Trump” angle.

I don’t think this is the winning argument they think it is.

[bobot]

And another thing…
Trump is going to be really pissed that these hearings are much bigger news in America than his silly pretend summit is. Good, fuck him.

[steronz]

Were you a good lawyer by not informing Trump that he was committing crimes when even a 5 year old would have realized that he was doing was wrong?

[Smapti]

Krishnamoorthi now questioning Cohen on Trump’s use of NDAs.

[John_Stamos_Left_Ear]

@steronz

Were you a good lawyer by not informing Trump that he was committing crimes when even a 5 year old would have realized that he was doing was wrong?

That question (and general theory) does have some meat on it potentially. If I hire a lawyer to handle my affairs, I expect that he informs me if anything I am doing or requesting him to do for me is illegal.

There comes into issues of common sense, of course. I don’t need a lawyer to tell me that I cannot kill my neighbor if we’re having a dispute over tree limbs in my yard. But Trump can claim that he just trusted Cohen to correct him if he was doing anything illegal. Hopefully Cohen did bring these things to Trump’s attention but that’s the only line of defense that I can see as being tough to refute in the court of public opinion.

[Smapti]

Cohen agrees that Trump used NDAs to silence his accusers.

[Ann_Hedonia]

@Fugazi

Thanks for taking one for the team. Are you still watching Fox? How’s their commentary during the break? Are they pretty much towing the Republican line that Cohen is a liar and nothing he says is true?

I had to go run an errand during the break. I’ll check next time