Last Wednesday, Cohen testified before the House Oversight Panel of allegations that he had against Trump, involving hush money, WikiLeaks, and possible involvement with the Russian government. That entire day, and the day leading to the testimony, the event was trending throughout, even overshadowing Trump's visit to Vietnam that same week. In my personal opinion, the following are the quotes that I paid particular attention to, not just to the wording, but the implication, even if unintentional by the speaker. All the quotes used do not involve Michael Cohen's opening, written statement, that was made public the day before. The full testimony can be found here.
1. "The more people that follow Mr. Trump as I did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that I'm suffering."Â
In response to Representative Jim Cooper's question about Cohen's 'breaking point' to tell the truth about Trump's scandals. Cohen, before issuing the above statement, said that various events that have hurt the American people is what led him to testify.
2. "Neither should I as the son of a holocaust survivor."
This was relayed in response to the question that Representative Mark Meadows brought up of Lynn Patton, an individual that Cohen hired for the current job that she currently has at the Trump Organization. Meadows asked to reason why Patton would be working for Trump given the fact that she is an African-American women and would not be involving herself with a racist person [this was relayed to by Meadows on Patton's part, none of this was vocally said by her]. Cohen rebuked by stating that the same case could be said for himself, as a the son of a holocaust survivor. Meadows then continued to ask for specific proof from Cohen of taped conversations implicating Trump as racists. Meadows also made the claim that between the (300) conversations with Trump, none implicated him as a racist. There was also no taped evidence to corroborate this.
3. "I just find it interesting, sir, that between yourself and your colleagues, that not one question so far has been asked about President Trump. That's actually why I thought I was coming today."
A statement said by Cohen during the alleged questioning time of Representative Jim Jordan. This is in response to the ___ hours of Republican representatives continuing to paint Cohen as a 'pathological liar' during each of their questioning times. The Republican's argument allied on the fact to disprove Cohen's testimony due to Cohen already having lied to Congress in the past.
4. "[Having] a person of color does not mean that they are not racist and it is insensitive that someone would use a prop, a black women, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself."Â
Said by Representative Rashida Tlaib that came under fire by Rep. Meadows. The racist act that Tlaib was specifically referring to was when Meadows brought in Lynn Patton to exonerate President Trump from being a racist. Tlaib later clarified her statement to Chairmen Elijah Cummings and Meadows that she was not stating that Meadows was a racist person, but that she, as a woman of color, took his action as being racist.
5. "When we're dancing with the angels, the question [that] will be asked: 'In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?' Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?"Â
Said by Chairmen Elijah Cummings during his closing statement to the committee, Cohen, and the American people watching the broadcast. Throughout the hearing, the key takeaway from all this, especially one that I personally think that Cummings was attempting to get across is that the place that America is currently in is shameful. But with Cohen's testimony, according to Cummings, might be destiny for it to occur and provides a point that all Americans, either Republican or Democrat (or whichever other parties), agree with: that all sides must come together in order to restore a great democratic society that America has the potential to be.
