Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today, we take a hard look at what I view as the disgraceful actions of most of the Republican congresspersons who participated in the 2/27/19 Michael Cohen hearing, and, going forward, what they might do to regain my respect.

The Disgraceful Actions

Michael Cohen served as the president’s personal lawyer and was brought in to the hearing to answer questions by the Congressional House Oversight Committee about possible criminal conduct and unethical behavior on the part of his former client and others connected with him. Rather than to devote their time to the task at hand, Republican after Republican spent the vast amount of time insisting that the whole hearing was a waste of time and a scam by Democrats to do nothing more than to try to gain political points.

Notice that there are two parts of their position. The first indicates that the Democrats wanted to gain political points at the hearing. I take this to mean that they wanted to bring out information that would increase the chances that Democrats will be elected in future elections. This is true enough, though it would have been more true if they also mentioned that the Republicans were also there to try to win political points. Party politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, are always trying to win political points. The second part of the statement tried to indicate that the Democrats were there to do nothing more than gain political points. I think that party politicians, including Democrats and Republicans, seek to do some other things besides win political points. The Republicans’ claim that the Democrats were seeking nothing more at the meeting was a superficial effort to hide the very real concerns that many of us citizens have with the current administration given the number of people connected with the administration that have been convicted of crimes.

Characteristic of the tone of the hearing by Republicans was Paul Gosar, a Republican representative from Arizona, who set up a sign behind his chair. The sign showed a picture of Mr. Cohen superimposed on flames, emblazoned with the words “LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!”

This was an attempt to discredit anything that Mr Cohen had to say at the hearing because he had lied in the past. Republicans repeated this attempt over and over again throughout the hearing, but it consistently appeared blatantly disingenuous given their continued support of the President who has a well documented history of lying on numerous occasions.

Rep. Jim Jordan on left, and Rep. Cummings on the right

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, began the hearing by saying derisively to the Democratic Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings,

“Here we go, your first announced witness, is Michael Cohen. I want everyone in this room to think about this, the first announced witness of the 116th Congress is a guy who is going to prison in two months for lying to Congress. Mr. Chairman, your chairmanship will be always identified with this hearing.”

To this claim, Rep. Cummings soon corrected the record by indicating the clearly documented fact that under his leadership during the 116th Congress the committee had already had three other hearings. At each, there were several announced witnesses. For example, at one such hearing, the high prices of pharmaceuticals, which is in the process of being investigated by the committee, had executives of the pharmaceutical industry called to answer questions.

Rep. Jordan went on from his untruthful statement, to claim that the present hearing was nothing more than to serve the Clintons, their loyalists, and operatives, as well as to harm the President. To defend his position, Rep. Jordan mentioned that the committee was limited to answer only certain questions. In making this statement, he failed to mention that the reason for these limits was to cooperate with the special counsel and the Southern District of New York that had asked for these limits because certain questions could interfere with their ongoing investigations. This is a standard requirement under this set of circumstances. No doubt Mr. Jordan is well aware of this, and nevertheless, he attempted to slip this by the public’s eye.

Throughout the hearing, when it came time for each of the other Republicans to have their five minutes to question Mr. Cohen, with little exception, they parroted, over and over again, what Rep. Jordan had done. Several of the Republicans asked no questions at all, and most of the others, after consuming the vast majority of their allotted time with insulting Chairman Cummings and the other Democrats for setting up this hearing, hastily asked a single question. This dramatically reduced the time to examine what Mr. Cohen replied.

Why the Republicans at the Hearing Had Clearly Acted Disgracefully

Consider the following facts that are all well known to all of the Republicans who participated in the Michael Cohen hearing:

1. The United States Intelligence community has concluded that Russia, a US adversary, took illegal action during the last presidential election seeking to help President Trump win.
2. President Trump, a Republican, nominated Rod Rosenstein to serve as Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice and was confirmed by the Republican majority U.S. Senate.
3. Following the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his misleading remarks he made to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary during his confirmation process and FBI Director Comey’s dismissal by President Trump, Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 elections and related matters.
4. During the special counsel’s investigation, several close associates to President Trump were convicted of lying about Russian government connections and/or other illegal matters, including his National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (plead guilty to a felony of willfully and knowingly making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to the FBI), and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort (convicted on eight charges of tax and bank fraud, and repeatedly lying to investigators).
5. Mr. Cohen had been President Trump’s personal attorney for about ten years, and in that role has probable first hand knowledge regarding possibly illegal actions over that period of time.
6. Each and every one of the Republican participants know that skillful questioning by investigators of people with first hand knowledge of relevant events often leads to obtaining useful information from people even when the person being questioned had lied in the past.
7. Information gathered from questioning such witnesses that is deemed as possibly helpful are not automatically assumed to be true, but are instead followed up to seek confirmation by other witnesses and documents.
8. Mr. Cohen’s testimony before the special counsel had already been deemed helpful by the special counsel at the time of this hearing and the special counsel had recommended to the sentencing judge that Mr. Cohen’s cooperation be a factor in giving him a lighter sentence.
9. Mr. Cohen, who is currently sentenced to three years in prison, if caught lying to Congress again would face far more years in prison, thus increasing the chances that he might provide further useful information if he is thoroughly and skillfully questioned.
10. Millions of American citizens wanted to hear and see for themselves how Mr. Cohen would respond to questioning by the Congressional House Oversight Committee.

I contend that each of the ten facts listed above were well known to each of the Republican participants at the Cohen hearing. Together, they provide sound reasons to bring Mr. Cohen in for questioning by the Oversight Committee. Thus, by denying that there were any sound reasons, Republican participants were lying. In my opinion, those lies are even more harmful to Americans than the lies Mr. Cohen has been convicted of telling.

My best guess as to why those Republicans had lied at the hearing, wasted time repeating the lies over and over again, and insulting their Democratic colleagues, is that it was these same people who, when the Republicans were in the majority in the House of Representatives, had blocked a thorough oversight investigation in an effort to protect the President. If it was now admitted that going forward with the investigation is the right thing to do, these Republicans would be seen as guilty for having interfered with their committee’s obligations.

Going Forward

I well recognized the pressure these Republican representatives have for saying something supportive about the President whenever they appear in public. Each of them has in their districts a majority of voters who continue to support President Trump. Swimming against this type of tide is hardly to be expected of politicians. Nevertheless, this did not justify their conduct at the hearing.

Other witnesses are being called to be questioned before the same committee. To regain my respect, when going forward, they could find out from their constituents specific things that they believe the President is doing well. Then, at the hearing they could say in under a minute something like,

“We are here to investigate possible wrong doing that might have occurred, and some of President Trump’s associates have already been convicted of criminal activities. That said, I want all of us to keep firmly in mind that the President has been doing wonderful things. Under his leadership, unemployment has remained low, regulations and paper work for business folks have been dramatically reduced, and excellent people have been nominated for judgeships. I sit here today in full support of our President. Now, let me get down to questioning this witness.”

Although I respectfully disagree with much of this statement, I would understand the need for them to make it. If, after such a statement, they then proceeded to earnestly question the witness, while remaining civil to their colleagues, my level of respect for them would rise.

So, there you have it, today’s From Insults to Respect post. Until next time, may you find that all of our political leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, are beginning to act more and more in an honest, respectful manner.

———————————
Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.

Congressional House Oversight CommitteeDisgraceful conduct by RepublicanslyingMichael CohenPresident Trump