WASHINGTON – Exactly what could overshadow a nuclear summit between a U. S. president and a North Korean despot? House oversight hearings on Capitol Hill managed to…
WASHINGTON – Exactly what could overshadow a nuclear summit between a U. S. president and a North Korean despot?
House oversight hearings on Capitol Hill managed to cross that high bar Wednesday with testimony from Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, detailing what he described as bank fraud, hush money payments, racist chatter, perjury and more by his one-time boss. His explosive 30-minute opening statement was followed by hours of sometimes-combative exchanges over Trump’s conduct and Cohen’s credibility.
That said, it’s not clear whether the litany of lies and unsavory behavior – some of it criminal, if true – will significantly sway voters‘ attitudes toward Trump, including whether he deserves to be impeached now, say, or re-elected next year.
Because up until now, nothing has.
Trump’s presidency has had several unprecedented characteristics, one of them being the steadiness of his support. His job-approval rating has bumped between 35 and 45 percent in The Gallup Poll since the day he was inaugurated. Unlike his predecessors, not even record low unemployment has won him much support from his skeptics. And not even missteps such as the record-setting government shutdown has cost him much allegiance among his believers.
The five-minute segments for members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee to question or speechify mirrored that polarization. Just about every Democrat posed questions meant to illuminate the worst allegations against Trump. Almost every Republican pressed reasons not to believe Cohen, who is on his way to prison for lying to Congress and other felonies.
Many of the allegations he made were familiar from news accounts over the past year, typically based on unnamed sources. What made this day different, and notable, was that Cohen was speaking on the record, and under oath, and with the perspective of a close aide who had once declared he would „take a bullet“ for his boss.
