The 10 Most Jaw-Dropping Lines From Michael Cohen’s Leaked Testimony

Michael Cohen testifies before Congress on Wednesday, but his opening statement was published by The New York Times late Tuesday.

In it, the disgraced former attorney to resident Donald Trump painted a picture of a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” sitting in the Oval Office. Then, in scathing detail, Cohen listed examples of each in action. 

Here are some of the most stunning excerpts from the statement:

“Mr. Trump is a racist”

“He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ‘shithole.’ This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.
“While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way.
“And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.”

Trump has a very low opinion of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. 

“Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any significance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.”

How Trump dodged service in Vietnam  

“Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.
He finished the conversation with the following comment. ‘You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.’”

Trump is not a patriot

“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.
“When telling me in 2008 that he was cutting employees’ salaries in half ― including mine ― he showed me what he claimed was a $10 million IRS tax refund, and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving ‘someone like him’ that much money back.”

Trump ‘reveled’ in refusing to pay his bills  

“One of my more common responsibilities was that Mr. Trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom were small businesses, that were owed money for their services and told them no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. When I advised Mr. Trump of my success, he actually reveled in it.”

Trump knew about Roger Stone and Wikileaks

“In July 2016, 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.’”

One of Cohen’s biggest regrets: Lying to Melania Trump

“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.”

Trump repaid Stormy Daniels hush money with personal checks

“I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that resident Trump personally signed from his personal bank 14 account on August 1, 2017 – when he was resident of the United States – pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer ― for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year – while he was resident.
“The resident of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.”

Cohen warns Trump: I’m not your ‘fixer’ anymore 

“For those who question my motives for being here today, I understand. I have lied, but I am not a liar. I have done bad things, but I am not a bad man. I have fixed things, but I am no longer your ‘fixer,’ Mr. Trump.”

The identity of Individual #1

“For the record: Individual #1 is resident Donald J. Trump.” 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-cohen-opening-statement_n_5c761ccbe4b062b30eb91450 

Was GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz's Tweet to Michael Cohen Witness Intimidation?

Matt Gaetz, you Florida tea party slack jawed yokel, you need to drink a stiff cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! 

dlevere.

As Michael Cohen apologized to a Senate panel Tuesday for having previously given false testimony, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Congressman serving Florida’s first district and a stalwart ally of resident Trump, took to Twitter with a tweet that some ethics experts considered a threat to Cohen.

“Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…,” Gaetz’s tweet said.

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/was-gop-congressman-matt-gaetzs-tweet-to-michael-cohen-witness-intimidation/ar-BBU85gQ

The Everyday Delusions Of The Trump Supporter (White Terrorist Edition)

Posted by Rude One

If you're going to be a supporter of resident Donald Trump, there's a certain amount of delusion you've got to have. And there's a whole range of the kinds of delusional thinking that can infect you.

You've got the seemingly practical delusions of most of the GOP members of Congress, a kind of "I can live with his barking insanity and wholesale destruction of our constitutional system if I get tax cuts for my wealthy donors" delusion.

On the other end of the spectrum, you've got the nutzoid conspiracy theorists, the ones who believe that Trump is a superhero who is being undermined by a cabal of Hillary Clinton, Democrats, media types, and, sure, Jews.

In the middle is the average delusional Trump voter, the kind who justify everything he does by declaring that Trump's not racist, not dumb, and certainly not unqualified for the job. They actually believe stupid shit he says, like that a border wall would solve all our problems with illegal drugs and prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the country.

They actually believe that Trump saved the economy from the wreckage of Obama's (checks notes) 75 straight months of job growth. They will justify anything in terms of Trump's obvious awesomeness, wondering how we can't comprehend the wonder that is the glowing orange blob that is Donald Trump.

And, perhaps most mindbending, some of them actually believe that the rise of white supremacist terrorism and violence in this country has nothing to do with Trump.

Like some things ought to be a no-brainer, right? When the FBI arrested very white guy Christopher Hasson in Maryland last week, he had a shit-ton of guns and ammos, as well as several Hulks worth of steroids and a small CVS of other drugs and supplies, and a plan to start a race war and a kill list of Democratic lawmakers and members of the media who are critical of Trump. So it's not a huge leap of logic to assume that asshole was inspired by Trump's rhetoric.

But not Eddie Scarry of the Washington Examiner (Motto: "No, not that one. Not that one either. Okay, just fuckin' click to find out"). In a "column" (if by "column," you mean, "A moronic, masturbatory yawp that its author desperately hopes will get him some Hannity man-love") titled, "Christopher Hasson, Coast Guard officer, was a nihilist and there’s no evidence he was a Trump supporter," says, well, the title pretty much says the entire thing, just on repeat.

It's all a bunch of self-own, really. In court documents, Scarry points out that in January, Hasson searched for "what if trump illegally impeached” and “civil war if trump impeached.” But don't you dare say that means he wanted civil war if Trump was impeached. Besides, Scarry says Hasson was driven by "a preoccupation with race and a nihilistic view that had no clear attachment to politics at all, outside of an unspecified antipathy for “liberalist/globalist ideology.” But don't you dare smack your head as you tell this bridge troll that Trump has a preoccupation with race and has derided "globalists." For Scarry and his delusional ilk, Trump simply can't be the racist piece of shit the majority of us know he is because, well, he isn't? I don't know. I can't get that up in my own ass.

In order to keep asserting, as he does, "Hasson didn’t care about Trump," Scarry ignores a couple of things. Like that almost all of the people on Hasson's kill list have been directly criticized by Trump. Otherwise, why would he give a shit about Joe Scarborough or Richard Blumenthal (who he called "Sen blumen jew," continuing that hilarious conservative sense of humor)? Or that he wants to kill "poca warren," which uses Trump's nickname for Elizabeth Warren?

The very act of eliminating Trump's influence on Hasson requires a ludicrous amount of denial. But that's more or less the only way Trump voters can exist in their bizarre, thick bubble where facts and reality don't penetrate.

(Note: It took everything I could not to make a joke about the name "Scarry." I couldn't decide whether or not to go with "frightening" or "full of scars" or "related to Richard Scarry.")

(Note again: The fact that an individual can legally buy that many guns makes us a ridiculously dumb country.)

Donald Trump Silent On Plot To Kill Critics

Joe: ‘Not a word from the resident’ and that ‘speaks volumes.’ Amid resident Trump’s silence on the alleged domestic terror plot by a Coast Guard lieutenant, the Morning Blow team discusses the state of American politics today.

Keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns

The New Jersey state Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that would keep presidential candidates off the state’s 2020 ballot unless they release their tax returns.

According to the Courier Post, the Democratic-controlled state Senate passed the measure along party lines in a 23-11 vote on Thursday, sending the bill to the Assembly committee and full legislature for a vote before it heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy (D) for consideration.

The controversial measure would deny candidates for President and Vice President a spot on the state ballot if they do not publicly release five of their most recent tax returns at least 50 days before the general election in 2020.

The bill, if passed, would also bar the state’s electors from voting for candidates for President and Vice President as part of the Electoral College system if they choose not to comply with the legislation.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/431062-new-jersey-senate-passes-bill-that-would-keep-trump-off-2020-ballot

TRUMP IS LOSING IT! Calls For Jail For Investigators, Retribution Against Critics, & GOP Is Silent!

Let's talk about the dangerous and increasing authoritarian tendencies of Donald Trump, who is now talking about JAILING Department of Justice investigators and wanting RETRIBUTION for critics.

It Can't Happen Here

Robert Reich: Is Trump The Worst Resident In History?

Robert Reich compares Trump's residency to the worst Presidents in American history.

Watch More: 7 Signs of a Tyrant ►► https://youtu.be/tg8y5H_Rrf0

 

Putin's Spies & Disinformation Machine // Malcolm Nance - MSNBC 11th Hour

MSNBC 11th Hour's Brian Williams hosts Intel Community veteran Malcolm Nance to discuss recent evidence of Kremlin espionage, using Trump associates, and disinformation campaigns intended to cause chaos and disruption.

Check out Malcolm on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/malcolmnance

The Resident Is The National Emergency: Eugene Robinson

'The resident's decision to officially declare an emergency - to pretend to build an unbuildable border wall - is not only an act of constitutional vandalism. It is also an act of cowardice...,' writes Eugene Robinson in a new WaPo column. Robinson joins Morning Blow to discuss.

Unless Howard Schultz Wants to RE-ELECT TRUMP - He Needs to Just Go Away Already!

We have to play it right this election so we don't end up in the same situation as 2016.

Go check out TRENTA PAC: https://www.trentapac.com/ and follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TRENTAPAC

This Is Why Trump Continues To Be Utterly DOMINATED By Ann Coulter!

Let's talk about Donald Trump's bizarre deference for Ann Coulter. No matter what nasty thing she says or tweets about him, Donald Trump continues to hold her in ostensibly as high regard as Vladimir Putin!

Dozens Of Crazed Trump Supporters Form “Human Wall” Along Southern Border

Last week Trump suggested that he would build a “human wall” along the southern border if Democrats don’t give him the funding that the wants for his border wall. Apparently some of his supporters took the message to heart, and they went down to the southern border and formed a wall themselves.

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses the insanity of this and why his supporters will literally do anything he tells them to do.



https://thehill.com/latino/429431-dozens-of-trump-supporters-form-human-wall-at-southern-border

FINALLY! Trump CoS Mick Mulvaney Slips and Admits Republicans Lied About Obama!

Let's talk about Mick Mulvaney's recent interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, during which Mulvaney admitted clumsily that Republicans during Barack Obama's eight years in office weren't worried about doing their jobs.

Trump’s DHS Guts Task Forces Protecting Elections From Foreign Meddling

Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won’t prepare adequately for election threats in 2020.

“The clear assessment from the intelligence community is that 2020 is going to be the perfect storm,” said a DHS official familiar with the teams. “We know Russia is going to be engaged. Other state actors have seen the success of Russia and realize the value of disinformation operations. So it’s very curious why the task forces were demoted in the bureaucracy and the leadership has not committed resources to prepare for the 2020 election.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-dhs-guts-task-forces-protecting-elections-from-foreign-meddling

Medicare for all: threat or menace?

Trump Toady Held BIG Ceremony To Install Plaque With His Name On Repaired Border Fence

By Aliza Worthington

Of course he did.

resident Narcissist actually put a plaque with his name on it on a section of the fence that was repaired on our southern border. It said, "Here lies what was left of my shame. Hahahaha just kidding I never had any shame."

 Watch as Alan Gomez reveals this astonishing-but-not-really tidbit to Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle on their show. They were discussing the bipartisan budged deal struck in Congress to avoid another shutdown, and fund the government.

In attempting to predict whether it will succeed in doing that, Gomez rightly said that since no one on God's green earth knows what the hell is going on in that idiot Trump's head, it's impossible to tell.

I'm paraphrasing only slightly.

Then he casually mentioned that Trump might just be satisfied with 55 miles of fencing, put a plaque on it like he did in California, call it a success and herald the win to the heavens. At that point, Ruhle stopped him in disbelief.

This just in: Joe Scarborough is an idiot!

By Kag

So, Morning Mika's Husband took some of his own "executive time" to pen a Washington Post op-ed claiming that Michael Bennet, Colorado's "soft-spoken, white son of the establishment" could be the answer to the Democratic party's prayers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-bennet-could-be-the-answer-to-the-question-every-democrat-is-asking/2019/02/11/4e90832a-2e2d-11e9-86ab-5d02109aeb01_story.html?utm_term=.acd760d6f119

Leave it to proud ex-Republican to try to sell us on a conservative white, straight, middle-aged corporatist as the "savior" of the party he loves to preach to but would never join. Michael Bennet gave one good speech (and I'll give it to him--it was a good speech) on the senate floor, and all of a sudden he's supposed to eclipse the likes of Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown as the one senator who can beat the Idiot Cheetoh because he's...what...so much like him?

Michael Bennet, just like Trump, knows what it's like to have everything handed to him. He only won his senate seat because he got to run as an incumbent, having been appointed by then-Governor Bill Ritter to fill a vacancy. And Ritter only plucked Bennet from the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools job (a position he was appointed to despite having ZERO school administration experience) because he (Ritter) had some personal grudge against the wildly popular Andrew Romanoff, former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. And despite Romanoff having clobbered Bennet at the state convention, Bennet ended up winning the primary because President Obama, in a move for which I will never forgive him, endorsed Bennet. (Why on earth Obama put his thumb on the scales in a Democratic Primary, I will NEVER understand.)

As Colorado's senator, Michael Bennet has distinguished himself by...well...not distinguishing himself. Until his famous "Ted Cruz is a big meanie" speech, very few people could have named the state he represents. He serves on three rather quiet committees, and his votes tend to be non-controversial, as are the bills he sponsors. In short, he just doesn't seem to want to make news. Now, that might be Scarborough's idea of presidential material, but I personally want a leader who...leads.

I truly don't intend to knock Bennet. As our senator he has been fine. Just fine. (Personally I'm hoping Andrew Romanoff, who just announced a run for Cory Gardner's seat, will make it to the Senate after all. Romanoff is my idea of a real Democrat.) I just think it's kind of rich that Joe fucking Scarborough thinks he knows what the Democratic party "needs." After all, when Joe served in the People's House--as a Republican--he sponsored a bill to withdraw from the United Nations, voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and worked to try to impeach Bill Clinton. And I won't even go into his own little intern scandal. Google it.

Joe seems to think that since Bennet isn't a lefty-liberal, that he can "save" the Democratic party. Well, I think that the 2018 elections proved that the party, and indeed the country, is ready for some loud, proud lefty-ness. And frankly, if we want to beat Cheetoh, the last person we should nominate is a milk-toast, "soft-spoken" centrist. If Joe thinks that's what this country needs, let him convince his own former party to nominate Michael Bennet.

Coffeebucks-Man!

Random Observations On Some Racist Dipshit Kids And All Of Us

Posted by Rude One

1. Fuck you if you're watching the videos of students from Covington Catholic School hooting and yelling and chanting and dancing in their douchewear of MAGA hats and Trump shirts and you think, "Oh, this is totally innocent and not racist." And double fuck you in your mouth and your ass if you look at images and videos of very white Nick Sandmann standing and smirking in front of very Native American Nathan Phillips and believe, as Sandmann's parents' hired guns wrote for Sandmann, "I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand." Bullshit. Anyone who has ever been around a group of young white dipshit males has seen that fuckin' smirk, that face that says, "You wouldn't touch me because I'm white and I got a group of angry white boys around me who are pissed off that they missed the era of lynching." Jesus, it must have been frightening to be surrounded by those howling piss ants in their MAGA gang colors.

1a. The one thing I'll give the forensic videologists of the right is that I never clearly heard the racist dipshit kids chant, "Build the wall." They may have. They may not have. I'm just saying I didn't hear it. Update: I watched another video, the one where the kid (whose name is probably Squee) rips his shirt off, and they are definitely chanting, "Donald Trump" for a couple of moments.

1b. Don't fuckin' tell me to "Watch the video of the whole thing." Motherfuckers, I did watch it. And it shows exactly what it looks like: a bunch of privileged white Christian boys getting off first on confronting some black people (the Hebrew Israelites are fuckin' assholes) and then on confronting some Injuns. They likely thought they'd finally get a hug from their MAGA fathers for doing it. Hell, they were probably gonna circle jerk about how brave they were for months after. Probably still will. While a Trump speech is playing on their phones.

1c. Teenagers know that everything...every fucking thing...will be recorded. They love it. They want it. They want to see how the stupid shit they do gets major likes and hearts and whatever the fuck. That's also what Sandmann was thinking standing there, knowing that his boys were recording. "Holy shit, this is gonna be so sick on my Insta." The old person argument of "I could do stupid things when I was a teenager and no one would ever see it" is bullshit because today's kids expect to be recorded. They do the stupid shit because they want it recorded.

2. As a liberal, I think the way that teenagers of color are treated by our American justice system, our American culture, and our American politicians is fucking disgusting. It is a savage fucking country that arrests kids and tries them in court as adults and talks about them like they are grown ups and not bundles of hormones whose brains haven't fully developed. It's a savage fucking country that lets kids live in abject poverty and does almost nothing to help them get out and then punishes them when they step even a little out of line, like acting up in school. All of this need to change, be reformed, overturned, anything. We have failed our kids miserably in so many ways.

2a. If you're conservative and you're pissed off at all the people on the left who are condemning the Covington Catholic dipshits, saying that they're just kids and are making stupid kid mistakes, I wonder how you'd've reacted if it had been a group of African American teen boys who just came from a Black Lives Matter march and were smirking at and mocking a white minister singing, "Amazing Grace"? Fuck you. You know what you would've said. You'd've been calling for them to be castrated and sent to the fields. Yet now you act like the public outrage at the dipshits makes them the moral equivalent of unarmed black teens shot by the police.

2b. The right also viciously attacked the Parkland teens for daring to speak out about gun control. When they planned a national school walkout for students, conservatives lost their goddamned minds. "They're being manipulated by adults," they said. "They're just being exploited." Yet somehow when you arrange for groups of Catholic school kids to go march against abortion rights, that's not exploitative. Weird, huh?

2c. If you're liberal and you want the racist dipshits treated like non-white kids are treated in America, well, sorry, but that's just fuckin' hypocritical. I don't want the racist dipshits gunned down by cops or sent to prison for absurdly long sentences or anything like that. I don't want that to happen to any teenagers. I do want the entire goddamn country to get back to the idea that all kids are kids, and, except in exceedingly rare cases, they should be treated as such. That's not a way to excuse the racist dipshits from Kentucky. But it is to say that our reaction to all teen dipshittery, criminal or not, should be contextualized by the fact that they are still kids. (And if you think sending death threats to the school or the kids is right, you can go fuck yourself.)

2d. To get super-harsh here, when teens are gunned down in a school or are the victims of some other crime, we are quick to label them as "children." Well, why do teen victims get to be innocent children while teen criminals get to be adults?

2e. Yeah, the dipshits deserve to be punished by their school and, if a crime was committed, charged with it. Of course. That's obvious. But punish them as kids, as we should all kids.

3. The dipshits have shitty parents, shitty teachers, and shitty religious leaders. They all have failed. The chaperones on the trip failed. The adults failed. They should be punished. They should be fired if they are at the school. Too bad we can't fire parents. The adults close to these kids are gonna fuck it all up. They already are.

4. Nathan Phillips has actually been incredibly insightful about the whole situation. In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, he said, "I'm disappointed with [Sandmann's] statement. He didn't accept any responsibility. That lack of responsibility, I don't accept it." All he wants is for the dipshits to accept that they were dipshits. That's where learning begins. "I'm just working for a better future for all of our children," he said. "But, I can't work with liars and thieves." And, in one of those so-wise-it's-almost-a-stereotype moments, he added, "I live in the plains and I've watched a tornado come down. It's very destructive. What I saw in front of me that day was destruction from a terrible storm tearing apart the fabric of my America and threatening the future of all our children."  He now wants to meet with the dipshits and try to teach them what they did was wrong, in case they don't understand that simple fact. Maybe he can tell them what the Indigenous Peoples March was for, too.

4a. Yeah, he's not a Vietnam War vet, although he did serve in the Marines. Well done, right-wing media. So? Does that mean Phillips deserves the treatment he received? Assholes.

5. Just shut the fuck up, David Brooks. 

Hey Billionaires, NOBODY Wants You To Run For President!

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has made headlines all week after he announced his interest in running for President, but the American public isn’t too happy about it.

In fact, most people are sick and tired of billionaires like Schultz who want to take away our privileges and safety nets while hoarding billions of dollars in cash for themselves, but that is EXACTLY what Schultz’s platform is shaping up to be. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Huckabee Sanders Says God Wanted Trump To Be President

During an interview with CBN, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that God actually chose Trump to be resident and that the Almighty WANTED Trump to be resident of the United States.

This woman isn’t playing with a full deck, and her comments prove that. But there’s a lot of implications from her comment that she likely didn’t realize, and Farron Cousins explains those.