Making the click-through worthwhile: Michael Cohen’s testimony is likely to be shocking, but he’s not a particularly reliable witness; India and Pakistan are shooting at each other, and we usually try to avoid having nuclear powers do that; former vice president Joe Biden inches closer to a presidential bid that will probably be more difficult than he expects; and a little offseason football talk.
A Pit of Vipers, With No Good Guys
A lot of people in the national media — I’d call them “blue checkmarks” for their status as being verified accounts on Twitter, but I’ve got the same status — seem quite excited about Michael Cohen testifying today. Cohen is expected to tell the House Oversight and Reform committee that President Trump is pathologically dishonest, sleazy, racist, and perhaps even one of the worst human beings on the face of the earth. His prepared testimony calls Trump a “conman” and a “cheat” who campaigned for president on a platform of “hate and intolerance.” Cohen is likely to repeat a variation of what was said through his spokesman last year, that Trump was “corrupt and dangerous” as president.
This might raise some questions, like if Cohen believed that Trump had this awful character . . . why he chose to work for him for twelve years. Cohen was free to resign at any point. Cohen will tell Congress today, “I regret all the help and support I gave him along the way.”
That’s twelve years of work that just ended in May 2018. What, he just woke up one day and realized Trump’s character and ethics were terrible? At some point, doesn’t Cohen’s current stance amount to practically boasting of his own obtuseness and moral blindness?
Cohen is expected to testify that Trump “knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.” From Cohen’s prepared remarks:
Days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great.’
This is dramatic testimony that strongly suggests Trump had knowledge of foreign hacking into the DNC and John Podesta’s emails. But for many reasons, it’s difficult to just take Cohen’s word for it.
No doubt the president or the White House staff will shoot back today that Cohen is pathologically dishonest, sleazy, and perhaps even one of the worst human beings on the face of the earth. Trump himself already called Cohen “not very smart and a very weak person.”
The White House staff will likely remind everyone that Cohen recently pled guilty to five counts of tax evasion and a single count of bank fraud. Cohen said to Vanity Fair in 2017, “I’m the guy who stops the leaks. I’m the guy who protects the president and the family. I’m the guy who would take a bullet for the president.” The man is the biggest turncoat since Benedict Arnold, and little that he says can be taken at face value.
But this, too, raises questions, such as why, if Cohen is so awful, Trump had him working as his lawyer and fixer for twelve years. Trump previously claimed it was because “a long time ago, he did me a favor.” That’s a spectacularly implausible explanation. You don’t keep someone as your personal lawyer for twelve years as a favor if you think he’s a weak person and not a very smart person.
I suspect later today or tonight, Fox News channel host Sean Hannity will echo the Trump team’s arguments about Cohen’s glaring dishonesty and character defects. People will understandably wonder why Hannity chose to work with Cohen as well.
Some situations are just a pit of vipers with no good guys. Stormy Daniels is not, as a New York Times column contended, a “feminist hero.” Trump is an appalling husband, who reportedly dangled opportunities to appear on The Apprentice to entice Daniels. The affair proceeded while Melania was taking care of their son. When the presidential campaign began, either Trump sought her silence about their affair through large amounts of cash, or she effectively blackmailed or extorted money out of Trump, through Cohen. Everyone knew the score, everyone knew what they were doing, everyone had opportunities to walk away from an arrangement that violated their moral principles, and they all chose to remain and move ahead with the deal.
That New York Times defense of Daniels stated, “She is refusing to slink away, despite being paid to do exactly that in a pattern we’ve seen too many times from influential men seeking to maintain their dominance and avoid responsibility.” Yes, but she also kept the money. She’s getting praise from some corners for revealing the truth while also enjoying the compensation for a broken promise of secrecy.
Sometimes you don’t get a hero. The Iran-Iraq War. Aliens vs. Predator. [Insert any sports championship that featured two of your least-favorite teams here.] No one involved in this moral morass is a good guy, so we shouldn’t let the media paint any of them in a heroic light.
Hey, Is Anybody Paying Attention to India and Pakistan?
Two nuclear powers shooting at each other’s military forces seems like the sort of thing that should be big news:
India has disputed Pakistan’s claims that its air force shot down two Indian fighter jets inside Pakistani airspace on Wednesday amid a potentially dangerous border crisis between the two nuclear-armed powers.
The alleged incident comes a day after India said it launched airstrikes in Pakistan territory in the first such incursion by Indian Air Force planes since the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
In a press conference Wednesday, the Indian foreign ministry said one of its Air Force pilots was missing after a plane was shot down in an aerial engagement with Pakistani military aircraft.
That account differs from Pakistan’s version of events, though CNN could not independently verify Pakistan or India’s claims.
Gee, I’d sure like it if this sort of thing could break through in the news cycle every now and then.
Does Joe Biden Know What He’s in For?
Former vice president Joe Biden says that his family wants him to run for president.
The moment he declares, he loses the protective aura of being Barack Obama’s wingman. And then all of the old positions, statements, gaffes, actions, and personality traits that torpedoed his last two presidential campaigns become fair game to his Democratic foes. I look forward to the “explain to us why you killed off busing for integration” in the coming debates.
ADDENDUM: For those who care about pro football and the New York Jets, I chatted with Scott Mason of TurnOnTheJets.com about new head coach Adam Gase, expectations for Sam Darnold, top targets in free agency, the draft, LeVeon Bell and Antonio Brown. By the end of the conversation, I concluded I was probably overestimating Bell’s chances of being signed by the Indianapolis Colts, underestimating the value of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, and slightly overestimating the value of offensive tackle Jonah Williams.
Between Alabama’s Quinnen Williams and Jonah Williams and LSU cornerback Greedy Williams and Vanderbilt cornerback Joejuan Williams, this year’s mock NFL drafts are pretty easy. Just put “I think they take Williams” next to every selection.