I must say that Jim Jordan (Il) tried his best imitation of Michael Jordan. I have tried over the last few years to find some redeeming character in Jim Jordan, but I just can't find it. Not content of just attacking Mr. Cohen, Jordan opened attacking (and lying about) the Chairman of the Committee. Jordan also couldn't resist attacking the FBI (one of his favorite whipping boys) and the Russia Investigation although the hearing was not about either of these. As they say, from there things went downhill.
Jim Jordan's imitation of Cohen got so good that at, one time, Cohen turned the tables and became the "interrogator" telling Rep. Jordan that he should be ashamed of himself.
“Mr. Jordan, that’s not what I said, and you know that’s not what I said,” Cohen shot back. “I said I pled guilty and I take responsibility for my actions.” As Jordan tried to talk over him, Cohen seemed to snap. “Shame on you, Mr. Jordan. That is not what I said. Shame on you.”
(For a full account of this interchange, see the reference.*) As Elijah Cummings said he is a friend of Mark Meadows, I bow to his superior knowledge that Meadows has some redeeming graces.
I think the greatest response by Cohen to the interrogation involved Mark (Send Obama back to Kenya) Meadows who claimed that President Trump couldn't be a racist because a Black woman who worked for Trump (and was behind Meadows as a prop) said she wouldn't work for a racist.
Specifically, Meadows presented Lynne Patton, a former party planner for the Trump Organization and current Housing and Urban Development official. “You made some very demeaning comments about the president that Ms. Patton doesn’t agree with,” Meadows told Cohen. “She says, as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way she would work for an individual who was racist. How do you reconcile the two of those?**
To which Cohn replied:
“As neither should I, as the son of a Holocaust survivor,” Cohen replied, suggesting that human beings in a capitalist society often agree to work for people whose views they find abhorrent. Cohen then advised Meadows to ask how many African-Americans currently work at the Trump Organization.**
“The answer is zero,” Cohen said.**
This illustrates the mesmerizing ability of Donald Trump.
A side note here is that it came out that at one time Cohen was $5 million in arrears on taxes. Cohen said he repaid this, but my gosh, $5 million? He and Manafort threw money around like it was a Monopoly game.
I did not listen to much of the hearing, but I found one Cohen imitator that was unbelievable. In fact, he sounded incredibly stupid. He kept asking about why the boxes that had been returned to Mr. Cohen by the FBI hadn't been turned over to the FBI? It was exceedingly embarrassing. Why is this guy in Congress? Perhaps he was drunk. (Rachel Meadows was kinder to Rep. Higgins than I and said he was so caught up in playing "gotcha" that he didn't hear Cohen's response.)
“Earlier you said, ‘I spent last week looking through boxes to find documents’ that would support your accusations. Where are those boxes, good sir? Where are those boxes? Are they in your garage?”
— Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.)***
Higgins, a former police officer, pressed Cohen in two separate exchanges about the boxes of documents that Cohen said he used to prepare his explosive testimony.***
Cohen said they were in storage.***
“And are these not boxes that should have been turned over to investigative authorities during the many criminal investigations you’ve been subject to?” Higgins continued.***
Cohen said, “Sir, these are the boxes that were returned to me post the raid.”***
I gave up and went back to listening to music. So far as I know, Rep Higgins (La.) is still asking the question.
I did hear Cohen's concluding statement in which he warned Republicans that they were following the same path as he did in having blind loyalty to Donald Trump.
Of course, the best imitation of Michael Cohen was by Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fl) who was not on the committee but threatened Mr. Cohen beforehand. The Florida Bar is said to be looking into the situation. Is disbarment possible?****
A long time ago I had a job in which I attended a lot of hearings and will say that closed hearings are much better than open hearings as the politicians pay more attention to the job at hand rather than pontificating. I will also say that Senators are vastly superior to Representatives intellectually. An old experienced hand told me it was due to Representatives always trying to get money for campaigns and have no time to get "up to speed." This is true of both parties.
* https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/shame-on-you-michael-cohen-rips-republicans-trying-to-discredit-him
** http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/mark-meadows-lynne-patton-michael-cohen-testimony-hearing-trump-is-racist-black-people.html
*** https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/28/fact-checking-michael-cohen-hearing/?utm_term=.1ed6fe13be18
**** https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/27/rep-matt-gaetz-under-investigation-after-michael-cohen-threat/3002635002/
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