Despite all of his corrupt behavior and inability to appreciate the people who have put themselves on the line for him, president Donald Trump obviously never believed that his former longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, would actually grow a spine and abandon him.
Things went sour between the president and Cohen after Trump removed Cohen from his inner circle and Cohen came under the microscope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Now that he’s had time away from Trump’s crippling grip, Cohen has been making it clear that he’s not going to throw himself under the bus to save Trump anymore.
Cohen made his newfound freedom clear in a bombshell interview with George Stephanopoulos, where he made a few surprising statements that assured America he would serve his family and country over the president. Cohen has also been posting these sentiments on Twitter:
As I said to @ABC @GStephanopoulos, “I respect our nation’s intelligence agencies who determined that Russia, had in fact, interfered or meddled in our democratic process. I repudiate Russia’s effort…and call on all Americans to do the same.”
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) July 16, 2018
“Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” -Walter Cronkite As we contend with the crazed 24/7 news cycle, it has never been more important than it is now for everyone to distinguish between innuendo and fact.
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) July 20, 2018
Trump has been dumbstruck by Cohen’s behavior (especially as it’s just been reported that Cohen secretly taped an incriminating hush money conversation they’d had). But it gets even worse for the struggling POTUS. Cohen’s break from Trump isn’t even limited to their legal fallout. According to Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Cohen has been “more openly questioning Trump’s fitness to be president.”
Cohen knows Trump better than most, having protected the president for decades. The fact that he would say this is deeply concerning. Cohen isn’t even denying it, either. Swan wrote:
When I texted Cohen today he declined several opportunities to deny he made these comments to friends. He told me he ‘cannot comment about someone’s innuendo.’ When I replied to Cohen that the sourcing was solid and would he like to contest the way I was characterizing his thinking, he, revealingly, would not do so.”
Cohen was one of the only people Trump could rely on, and that arrangement is obviously over. As Cohen begins to speak out more, the little bit of leverage Trump had is being quickly demolished.
Featured image via screen capture
