His Vietnam summit over, Trump unloads on Michael Cohen and Capitol Hill probes
President Trump appeared to exhibit some restraint during his trip to Vietnam, not firing back as his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen described him as a "racist" and a "conman" in a nationally televised congressional hearing, and even offering some laudatory words for Cohen during a press conference with reporters.
Though he said Cohen lied "a lot," the president also noted "he said no collusion." "I was a little impressed by that quite frankly. He could have gone all out. He went about 95 percent instead of 100 percent," Mr. Trump told reporters in Hanoi.
But on Friday morning, with no events on his public schedule after returning the night before from a truncated and unsuccessful summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the president unloaded on his former "fixer," Democrats and the various Russia probes. The president appeared to refer to a Daily Mail report claiming Cohen, before the FBI raided his home and office, proposed writing a book that spoke of Mr. Trump in glowing terms.
"Wow, just revealed that Michael Cohen wrote a 'love letter to Trump' manuscript for a new book that he was pushing," the president tweeted Friday morning. "Written and submitted long after Charlottesville and Helsinki, his phony reasons for going rogue. Book is exact opposite of his fake testimony, which now is a lie!"
"Congress must demand the transcript of Michael Cohen's new book, given to publishers a short time ago," the president continued. "Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony. Like a different person! He is totally discredited!"
Cohen's attorney Lanny J. Davis later told CBS News that, "Sometime in early 2018, Mr. Cohen was offered a substantial advance for a proposal regarding a book on understanding Donald Trump. Mr. Cohen ultimately elected not to proceed. In other words, POTUS has yet lied again...but what's the difference between 9000 or 9001 lies?"
Mr. Trump also used Cohen's testimony to rail against the congressional and special counsel investigations related to his administration. Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee made it clear in grilling Cohen Wednesday, as they have before, that they intend to drill down into Mr. Trump's finances.
"Oh' I see! Now that the 2 year Russian Collusion case has fallen apart, there was no Collusion except bye Crooked Hillary and the Democrats, they say, 'gee, I have an idea, let's look at Trump's finances and every deal he has ever done. Let's follow discredited Michael Cohen...'" Mr. Trump also tweeted Friday morning.
Democrats on the committee are now interested in hearing testimony from Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization who has intimate knowledge of the finances of the president's businesses.
After Democrats won the House in last year's midterm elections, and in this year's State of the Union address, Mr. Trump said investigations could not co-exist with legislative accomplishments on Capitol Hill.
"If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation," the president told Congress in his State of the Union. "It just doesn't work that way."