Is Michael Cohen Going Back To the Dark Side? Sure Sounds That Way

This is somewhat alarming. Michael Cohen, who spent three years in prison due to laws he broke while in service to Donald Trump, is now agreeing with both Trump and Scott Jennings on what a terrible job the media does. This is not a good sign from a man who said pre-election that he was sure he was on “a list” and if Trump got back in power, he would be prosecuted and/or persecuted or both. Is he trying to get back into his former Mango Master’s graces? I hope not. But take a listen to this and I don’t think you’ll be pleased.

HOLY SMOKES: Michael Cohen shocks CNN panel and admits that Trump is RIGHT about “sloppy” legacy media journalism.

“I think that media has to do their job.”

Cohen then named a half-dozen of the “hundred lies” the media spread about him:

“Look, I was the recipient of more than… pic.twitter.com/nCpRKKSsrK

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) December 18, 2024

Cohen might live down a few things, but not dubbing Trump “Von Shitzenpants” which is a title cobbled together on the spot when Cohen was on a Meidas Touch broadcast with one of the Meiselas brothers. Plus, unless I miss my guess, Meidas Touch is not going to be too happy with this anticipatory capitulation of Cohen’s. If there’s one thing that Meidas Touch strives for, it is the appearance of their independence and their purity in protecting democracy from Trump and his fascist clique of rabid aides and followers.

But maybe Cohen seeks to soften Trump’s wrath. I don’t think it’s a good move. If there is one thing to be said about this current political environment, as completely polarized as we are, it is that we have a binary choice here: pro-Trump or anti-Trump. There is no middle ground, grey area. You either take a stance for democracy and against fascism, or you do the reverse. It’s clear cut.

Trump is an agent of chaos. Josh Marshall commented on the harassment suits that Trump intends to bring, particularly against Ann Selzer.

When a powerful person (and in this case a president) targets individuals, he is trying to overwhelm them, force them to knuckle under because they lack the resources to fight. That does more damage to the civic equities we’re trying to defend. The point of such retribution is to make an example of someone and cast a penumbra of fear that keeps other people from getting out of line. If people are confident their costs — literal and figurative — will be covered they will be more likely to speak their minds, do the right thing, run risks.

These two points are straightforward. But they’re worth articulating. First, fairness: targeted individuals shouldn’t alone bear the costs of protecting collective goods. Second, self-protection: people who believe in democracy and the rule of law have a clear interest in guaranteeing these defenses and preventing the spread of civic fear.

But there’s another need that may not be as clear and its a role some group like this should fill.

Let’s take the Selzer/Des Moines Register suit as our example. Trump is claiming that he was damaged and should be made whole because of a poll that showed him behind and turned out to be wrong. His lawyers are trying to shoe-horn this claim into an Iowa consumer fraud statute. But we shouldn’t be distracted by that. The idea that a political candidate has a cause of action over a poll is absurd on its face. And really that is precisely the point. I’ve written a number of times recently about the ways Trump casts penumbras of power and fear with talk, how he holds public space, how he keeps opponents off balance and guessing. This is another example.

As I noted above, a lot of the power and point of such an exercise is precisely the absurdity of it. It is meant to spur a chorus of “You can’t do that” and “How can he do that?” But he does do it. We have that same mixture of outrage, incomprehension, uncanny laughter, the upshot of which is that the rules somehow don’t apply to this guy. That’s power and that is the point. It is a performance art of power enabled by a shameless abuse of the legal system.

This is where I would want such a group to jump in, immediately, caustically and tauntingly saying, “Nope that won’t fly. We’re ready with the best lawyers and a mountain of cash and we’re going to embarrass you for even trying.” Beyond covering legal expenses and giving people the confidence they won’t be bankrupted by Trump, these are really pro-wrestling-derived public spectacles and performance art aimed at telegraphing power and demoralizing enemies. So much of our politics in the Trump era amounts to this. We’ve seen this. We know this if we’re paying attention.

And Trump’s opponents need to learn to speak in that language. Otherwise it’s a professional wrestling grudge match, a taunt-fest with only one side taunting. The other side isn’t even on the playing field. It’s the same mix of outrage, incomprehension, powerlessness and finally exhaustion. I fear some folks simply don’t get this dimension of what’s going on. It’s not something you learn in law school and not in conventional, old-style politics either. Defending the targets as key. But that’s not the only point or even the main one. It’s about demonstrating the limits of Trump’s power and embarrassing him, President or not.

The problem with embarrassing Trump is that to embarrass somebody, they need to be capable of shame. Trump is not. As Mark Twain said, “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or that needs to.” Trump’s almost mystical power is that he creates his own version of reality, which he believes. At least he believes it publicly. There’s no way Trump thinks the 2020 election was stolen. He’s publicly admitted that he “lost it by a hair.” But since that’s a good grift and he needs to keep the MAGAs enraged, that myth was an essential one.

I hope Cohen doesn’t start to softsoap or softpedal Trump. There’s a lot of that going around now. There’s also a lot of revisionist history taking place. Cohen provided many hours of engaging dialogue about his old boss. I hope he’s not going to rejoin forces with him again.

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