For progressives, there's been such sparse good news these past 530 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes (but who's keeping count?) that the Laker signing of LeBron James almost qualifies. Fox talk show host, Laura Ingraham, politicized LeBron when she once said he “Should shut up and keep dribbling.” Then again, she's also mocked Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor, David Hogg, for not getting accepted into his top colleges. How charming. Not!
If LeBron is wonderful news for local sports fans, for fans of “truth” related to POTUS (I hate even using his name) there's the possibility of terrific news. Over the weekend, his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, did a lengthy interview with George Stephanopolous of ABC. Cohen, who once said he was “willing to take a bullet for the president,” may now be willing to fire bullets back at him.
Cohen said his loyalty and priorities are to his family and the country, not you know who. For the rest of this column, I may have use Trump's name, which, ironically, is something he hasn't always done. (A con man uses aliases not a president but, just that we know of, Trump has used three: David Dennison, John Miller and John Barron.)
It's often said that Cohen knows where the bodies are buried and my guess is there's a truckload. Remember on the campaign when Trump said he had absolutely no dealings in Russia? At the time Cohen was actually negotiating a deal for Moscow Trump Towers.
And, of course, Cohen, who hasn't been charged with any crime (yet) was the “fixer” in the Stormy Daniels $130,000 payoff six days before the election. (Imagine the GOP outrage if Obama had done that.)
Whereas Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, compared the FBI agents who raided Cohen's home and office in April, though it seems much longer ago, to “stormtroopers,” Cohen has a much different view. He said the agents were “gentlemen” and that when they left he and they shook hands. (Still shocks me, Giuliani, directly compared FBI agents to Nazis. #Shame.)
Cohen also supported the special counsel’s Robert Mueller's investigation and rejected Trump’s description of the probe as a “witch hunt.” (Mueller’s team has either indicted or gotten guilty pleas from 20 people and three companies, just so far, which seems like a helluva lot of witches.)
Though it's highly anticipated, Trump hasn't yet attacked Cohen. Instead, he recently repeated, “Putin still insists Russia had nothing to do with interfering in the 2016 elections.” (And for that matter, O.J. still insists he didn't kill Nicole.)
As any regular reader of this columns knows, I genuinely believe Trump, who very well may be a narcissistic sociopath, is without a conscience. This explains why he can mock John McCain battling for his life, two Gold Star families, a disabled reporter, allude to a female anchor's menstrual cycle and endorse an immigration policy that separates 2000 children from their parents for over two months now without inspections or status reports. (Please Google: “New immigration ad uses Ronald Reagan” which ran on TV nationwide on July 4.)
It also explains some of Trump's comments that seem just pure evil. On June 21, syndicated political columnist Charles Krauthammer passed away after spending his adult life paralyzed in a wheelchair. Responding to an occasional Krauthammer criticism, Trump quipped, “I've built an empire. He can't even buy a pair of pants.” (What kind of human would say that?)
Switching to N. Korea, our latest intelligence suggests they're actually increasing their nuclear capacity. After the “Singapore summit” Trump said, “I've resolved the problem.” However, he inadvertently acknowledged, “Maybe in six months I'll be proved wrong. Of course, I won't admit it. I'll probably make up some excuse.”
That's what Trump has done from day one. From the phony doctor's letter, the phony tax audit, and the phony Trump Tower Russians meeting letter which, it turns out, he dictated.
Like no president in history, Trump attacks NATO and our allies and seems to revere murderous dictators like Putin, Erdogan, Duterte, XiJinping, and Jung-un. His subservience to Putin is so obvious the former Prime Minister of Belgium tweeted Trump, “Just tell us what Vladimir has on you,“Maybe we can help.”
As I write this, Trump just tweeted, “If it wasn't for me we'd be at war with N. Korea.” And if it wasn't for Trump we wouldn't have a 21 trillion dollar debt and 2,000 helpless kids would be with their parents. Just sayin'.
Michael Cohen has indicated he won't let himself be a punching bag for Trump or be portrayed as the villain in the Russia probe. Speculation is that he hopes to become the John Dean of “Trumpgate.” That and LeBron becoming a Laker, all I can say is let the showtime begin.
Jack is at facebook.com/jackneworth, twitter.com/jackneworth and jackdailypress@aol.com
