for Republicans, today's House Democrat-led hearing with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen looks like a Democratic public-relations campaign...right down to the Democrats reviewing the testimony at the "objective" networks. ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who took his own turns testifying for a lying president with personal financial scandals during his time in the Clinton White House, came running to Cohen's defense during the first break in the hearings on Wednesday. Cohen granting this Clinton pal access and interviews (through his fixer, Clinton pal Lanny Davis) is paying off.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And Chris Christie, you've known Michael Cohen for awhile, I've known Michael for a long time as well. And there's no question we are seeing a humbled Michael Cohen before this committee today.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: No doubt.
STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of the anecdotes -- a lot of the personal anecdotes -- have the ring of truth.
Which personal anecdotes? A couple of minutes earlier, Terry "Obama Is Taking a Step Down Into the Oval Office" Moran predicted what may enter the public "mindset."
TERRY MORAN: I think there is something beyond those immediate legal concerns that you guys are talking about that might settle in to the national mindset, and that is the portrait from an alleged insi -- from an insider of Donald Trump. He called him an enigma, Michael Cohen did and he went on to describe what he says is this casual racism that Cecilia mentioned, the notion that he says his son Don Jr. has the worst judgment of anyone he has ever seen. You can almost see that in their relationship in the way that that has played out in public. His statement that only stupid people went to Vietnam, and his contempt that Michael Cohen portrays. This is an insider's alleged portrait -- alleged portrait -- of Donald Trump, and it might have broader political impact for Donald Trump down the line -- not just those concrete legal issues that this testimony raises, but the broader sense of what he's really like behind the scenes, and it's obviously unflattering.
Stephanopoulos said to Cecilia Vega that Cohen seemed more comfortable on the personal matters than the legal matters (perhaps because he has so transparently lied about the legal matters). Vega said this may not move public opinion, but Cohen's testimony is "potentially invaluable."
CECILIA VEGA: I think that this is going to be another one of those rorschach tests that we keep living through in this society. If you thought before this morning that president trump was a racist, a con man and a cheat like Michael Cohen told congress and America that he believes he is, you probably still think that, and if you didn't, you think Michael Cohen is a liar no matter what he says. Michael Cohen, if he is to be believed, opened up -- pulled the curtain back on the mystery that is Donald Trump, a side of him that we rarely get to see, life inside Trump Tower. Who gets to stand behind his back and whisper in his ears words about meeting,s potentially? We are -- we are hearing from someone whose testimony could be so potentially invaluable because of the role he played for so many years in that company.
