Is Chinese spying a national security threat to the US? Small potatoes, compared to the national security threat posed by Donald Trump! If you believe Michael Cohen, that is.
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017, but now he is surely truthful about one thing. As the titles of his books—Revenge and Disloyal—indicate, Cohen’s goal in life is to bring down Donald Trump in retribution for the wrongs he believes Trump to have committed against him.
Which makes Cohen an ideal guest for MSNBC.
Cohen made his most recent-of-many appearances on Katie Phang’s show Saturday morning. The focus was initially on Cohen meeting yet again with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office regarding a possible prosecution of Trump in respect of a payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, allegedly in return for her silence regarding a possible affair with Trump.
But the conversation ultimately veered into the area of Trump’s possession of classified documents. Which in turn led to this stunning exchange.
KATIE PHANG: Is Trump finally at that point where he’s hitting the panic button?
MICHAEL COHEN: I think he’s hit the panic button a while ago. However, what he’s very good at, is hiding it. So, anybody that’s in the room with him would be able to attest to things that I had seen in the past, which is Donald really losing it.
But, in front of the camera, he’s calm, cool, and collected, because he’s a sociopath. Period, end of story . . . The real true danger to our national security are not these floating balloons that are out there. It’s now, as you earlier reported, the fact that they copied these classified documents and they were sitting on a computer of one on Donald’s aides.
Because, if you’re really concerned about national security, don’t worry about a weather balloon. Don’t worry about what information that they’re seeing, through this. They already have people on the ground. And we’ve been spying on China, China’s been spying on America. How about top secret documentation that’s in the hands of Donald Trump? That’s the clear and present danger to America’s national security.
Phang ended the segment by saying—with malicious, grinning, glee [see screencap]—that she’d have to have Cohen back on the show . . . when Trump is indicted.
Note: whereas Cohen described the recent incursion into US airspace as a mere Chinese “weather balloon,” by all accounts it was a sophisticated spy balloon. What news source is Cohen relying on for his benign characterization of the balloon? The People’s Daily?
On Katie Phang’s MSNSBC show, Michael Cohen saying the national security threat to the US comes not from Chinese balloons but from the fact that Donald Trump was in possession of classified documents was sponsored in part by Abbvie, maker of Skyrizi, Advil, and John Deere.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
The Katie Phang Show
2/11/23
7:42 am ETKATIE PHANG: I always ask you this question, but I don’t think it’s ever stale. Because you do know Donald Trump very well. Intimately well, in terms of the way his brain thinks.
Is Trump finally at that point where he’s hitting the panic button?
MICHAEL COHEN: I think he’s hit the panic button a while ago. However, what he’s very good at, is hiding it. So, anybody that’s in the room with him would be able to attest to things that I had seen in the past, which is Donald really losing it.
But, in front of the camera, he’s calm, cool, and collected, because he’s a sociopath. Period, end of story.
You know, I will tell you one thing. While watching the show, before I came on, you had Michael Allen on. And let me tell you, you the real true danger to our national security are not these floating balloons that are out there. It’s now, as you earlier reported, the fact that they copied these classified documents and they were sitting on a computer of one on Donald’s aides.
I mean, this is what I had said on your show, how many months back? That we need to go, and we need to check every single place that Donald Trump has been since leaving office. And then we have to figure out, who was with him.
Because, if you’re really concerned about national security, don’t worry about a weather balloon. Don’t worry about what information that they’re seeing, through this. They already have people on the ground. And we’ve been spying on China, China’s been spying on America. How about top secret documentation that’s in the hands of Donald Trump? That’s the clear and present danger to America’s national security.
PHANG: Michael Cohen, maybe you’re going to be testifying with special counsel Jack Smith concerning Mar-a-Lago documents sometime soon. That would be interesting.
But you know what Michael? It would be one of several times that you have sat down with Congress, and with law enforcement. And I want to thank you for sitting down with me this morning to talk about your upcoming meeting with Alvin Bragg.
We’ll have you back once we see an indictment, I think, from the Manhattan DA’s office, but thanks for being here this morning.
COHEN: Always good to see you, Katie.
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