Cohen described the man who now serves as president of the United States as a crude and irresponsible man who acted in profoundly dishonorable and destructive ways during the years of their acquaintance, and who brought to the White House an awful politics built on lies and fearmongering.

::::::::

From The Nation

No one should doubt that this testimony makes the case for impeaching and removing an unfit president.

The formal process of removing Donald Trump from an office for which he is uniquely unfit will not begin until the House Judiciary Committee opens hearings with an eye toward framing articles of impeachment against the president. But when that process begins, as it surely should, the remarkable testimony by former Trump fixer Michael Cohen before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will be recognized as a critical turning point in the unraveling of this lawless presidency.

House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who so ably and carefully managed Wednesday's hearing, did not use the "I" word. That was understandable, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other members of the chamber's leadership have yet to formally embrace the constitutional remedy for a constitutional crisis. They generally echo the line of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who said in January, "It's premature to consider what remedy is appropriate. After [special counsel] Bob Mueller issues his report, we ought to see what evidence he produces, before we have any discussions of what the consequences should be."

What Cummings did say on Wednesday is, "The American people voted for accountability in November, and they have a right to hear Mr. Cohen in public so they can make their own judgments. Mr. Cohen's testimony is the beginning of the process -- not the end."

But how, if the Constitution is operational, could there be another end than an accountability moment for a president who is the subject of multiple inquiries into allegations of dramatic wrongdoing on the part of candidate Trump, President Trump, and Trump associates? How, if the Congress is still to be understood as a meaningful check and balance on electoral and executive abuses, can the US House of Representatives neglect so devastating an indictment of Donald Trump by a man who served for a critical decade "as his Executive Vice President and Special Counsel and then personal attorney when he became President"?

"I am no longer your fixer, Mr. Trump," declared Cohen, who repeatedly acknowledged on Wednesday that he had lied and broken the law on the president's behalf. Cohen described the man who now serves as president of the United States as a crude and irresponsible man who acted in profoundly dishonorable and destructive ways during the years of their acquaintance, and who brought to the White House an awful politics built on lies and fearmongering.

Recalling Trump's 2016 "Make America Great Again" presidential campaign, Cohen told the committee: "The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. In fact, he did the opposite." And he asserted that the sharpest criticisms of the president only begin to tell the story of a charlatan who former John McCain aide and Republican operative Mark Salter says now leads "an association of frat boys, grifters, self-dealers, racists and cowards."

"Mr. Trump is a racist. The country has seen Mr. Trump court white supremacists and bigots. You have heard him call foreign countries shitholes," Cohen explained. "In private, he is even worse."

After apologizing for lying to Congress in order to protect Trump from necessary scrutiny, Cohen then said, "To our nation, I am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth about Mr. Trump when you needed it most."

Republicans sought to discredit Cohen at every turn, with attempts to delay the hearing and with pronouncements that referred to Cohen as a "fake witness" and declared that his testimony was a "travesty." The bullying got so extreme that Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) felt compelled to begin his round of questioning by telling Cohen, "Our colleagues aren't upset that you lied to Congress for the president. Our colleagues are upset because you stopped lying to Congress for the president."

The desperate attempts by Republicans to disparage and discredit the witness were repeatedly upended by Cohen's self-deprecating testimony, in which the former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee spoke frequently about the fact that he will soon be imprisoned for committing campaign-finance violations and other crimes "for the principal purpose of influencing" the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump's favor.

Trump's longtime lawyer was devastatingly blunt, and devastatingly specific, explaining to the committee that "last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Individual Number 1. For the record: Individual Number 1 is President Donald J. Trump."

Authors Bio:

John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.


Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.


Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in his Grave." The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organizations.


Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic. He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."


With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.


Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."