Cole Tamarri

Managing Editor

Michael Cohen sat in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee looking very much the part of a nervous informant that one would picture from a whole host of movies about the Mafia.

Despite his reputation as a liar, watching the seven hours and change of testimony last Wednesday, Feb. 27 was surreal.

Normally, anyone with a reputation near Cohen’s with his history of lying, I am immediately skeptical of anything they have to say.

However, after his opening statement, and throughout his testimony, I found myself believing him.

At first, I couldn’t pin why, but this situation is a lot like the friend in your friend group who is a known liar but one time they say something that you know intrinsically to be true.

I believe this is the case with Michael Cohen.

Cohen described how the payments went down between adult film actress Stormy Daniels, telling the congressional panel how he was the intermediary between President Donald  Trump and with who he had allegedly slept with outside of his marriage.

He also alluded to a whole host of potential crimes Trump committed, especially after New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked pointed questions about the value of Trump’s assets in terms of insurance policies.

However, this hearing to me represents much more than just pinching Trump’s “fixer” and culling more information for this mysterious Muller report that may or may not ever come.

Watching the proceedings left me with one thought: Just who did this country elect?

I know he’s a criminal and a con man, but it’s hard to comprehend when it’s staring you in the face that this democratic process which we glorify in our public schools and in our civic houses, elected this unqualified narcissistic imbecile to the highest office in the land.

What bothered me even worse, was the obfuscation of the Republicans on the committee. A scene that sticks out in my brain days later is Chip Roy of Texas quoting something Michael Cohen had said about how the payments were executed through the Trump Foundation. Roy was talking so fast that Cohen had to ask him to slow down and repeat himself twice. When people are talking fast so as to trip a witness up through the semantics of words, there is a problem with the process. The other part that bothered me to the core was the incident regarding Republican Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. What Meadows did by parading that black woman out as a trope to prove that Trump was not racist is a racist act, period. the Republicans on the committee.

A scene that sticks out in my brain days later is Chip Roy of Texas quoting something Michael Cohen had said about how the payments were executed through the Trump Foundation.

Roy was talking so fast that Cohen had to ask him to slow down and repeat himself twice. When people are talking fast so as to trip a witness up through the semantics of words, there is a problem with the process.

The other part that bothered me to the core was the incident regarding Republican Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

What Meadows did by parading that black woman out as a trope to prove that Trump was not racist is a racist act, period. 

The comedy ensued as Meadows did what The Kid Mero of the Showtime show “Desus and Mero” referred to as the trifecta of what white people do when they are called on their racism.

He got visibly emotional, claimed he had black friends and then went so far as to relate that his nephews and nieces were black.

Congratulations Mark Meadows, you are the winner of the “I’m white and got called on my racism so let me cry and be the victim” award.

Even more troubling was when Rashida Tlaib from Michigan said in her closing remarks during her time that she was troubled by Meadows’ display.

He played the victim and pled his case to chairman Elijah Cummings without acknowledging or apologizing for offending her.

By the time the skirmish was over, Tlaib was forced by collegial rules of Congress to apologize to Meadows, and Cummings was cornered into having to sooth Meadows’ ego.

In relaying these two troubling incidents, what the Cohen testimony did was not only reveal the actions of an unqualified president and law-breaking citizen, it also revealed the insidious nature of how certain people will cling to their racism over doing the right thing by the country.

This hearing is indicative of the oft-mentioned divide in our country, and until we can agree to discuss politics and race as the two components of a bigger problem, this country will continue to be stuck in neutral.

Email Cole at:

ctamarri@live.esu.edu