Michael Cohen attorney Lanny Davis lobbed salvo after salvo at Donald Trump on Fox's America’s Newsroom show today. For good measure, Davis got in a shot at Fox News.
The seriousness of Donald Trump’s predicament in the wake of Michael Cohen’s guilty pleas yesterday can be seen in the unfocused responses of the two Fox cohosts in the wake of Davis’ relentless attacks on Trump.
Although America’s Newsroom is not the steady stream of Trump propaganda we’re accustomed to seeing on, say, Fox & Friends, it’s still part of the network’s political operation.
Nevertheless, I got the feeling that Fox was not quite ready with its “news division” talking points (as opposed to the Hannity division talking points) when Davis, who made the talk show rounds this morning, got to America’s Newsroom.
Davis seemed to be promoting Cohen’s value as a federal witness along with a fundraising website
Cohosts Eric Shawn and Sandra Smith pressed Davis as to whether or not Cohen knows anything about Russia collusion or whether he will testify about Trump’s actions “concerning the Russians,” as Shawn put it. “Did your client make up stories about the president?” Shawn asked. Smith pressed Davis on a statement he made on another network that there’s an “obvious possibility” that Cohen knows about whether Trump participated in a criminal conspiracy to hack into DNC emails.
Davis dropped a teaser.
DAVIS: Yes, I did say “possibility” and possibility isn’t a fact. It’s my judgment and observation that there is that possibility and he’ll have to leave the specifics as to whether or not that possibility becomes stronger than possibility up to Mr. Mueller or whoever’s questioning him.
Rather than challenge Cohen’s value to Mueller, Smith limply questioned Cohen’s character
Smith moved on to ask why Cohen is no longer “willing to take a bullet” for Trump. Davis, a staunch friend of the Clintons, replied that he had talked “at length” with Cohen before agreeing to represent him.
Again, Davis seemed to be trying to sell his client – if not to Mueller then at least to people who might be willing to shell out bucks to someone who might be useful to him. And, again, the Fox hosts had no answer. Davis made a point of saying that Cohen has respect for the FBI and the intelligence community’s “unanimous judgment, including Donald Trump’s own national director of intelligence,” that the Russians “interfered on Mr. Trump’s behalf in what is the functional equivalent of corrupting our democracy.” Davis went on to point a finger at Trump: “And only one person is left who denies his own intelligence community’s unanimous judgment.”
Davis added that Trump’s behavior in Helsinki was “a major turning point” for Cohen.
Shawn suggested Trump has committed a federal crime
Shawn asked an unexpected question: whether Cohen and Davis think that Trump “committed a federal crime” and would be indicted “right now” if he were not president.
“There’s no question that he’s committed a federal crime,” Davis said, though he called it “unclear” as to whether or not a president can be indicted.
Finally, Smith had a sort-of defense for Trump, that we don't know for sure if he's a crook. “Obviously, Mr. Davis, there is a question of whether or not he committed a federal crime,” she said.
But Davis shot back, “There is no question … that money given beyond limits, for the purpose – as it was said yesterday by the prosecutors in the Southern District - is an illegal act.” He noted that Cohen had agreed, under oath, what the government had stated had happened.
Shawn tried to change the subject to Clinton – and Davis changed the subject to Fox News rhetoric
Shawn made the not-so-subtle suggestion that Davis was merely acting on behalf of his “close” friends, the Clintons: “What do you say to those who say that there should be a special counsel investigating the Clintons, the DNC, the dossier, Christopher Steele and the way this was handled by the Department of Justice and the FBI officials, some of whom have been fired – and certainly showed a distaste for Donald Trump becoming president of the United States?
DAVIS: First of all, you didn’t state a single fact involving the Clintons. And although I have a lot of friends at Fox and have been a Fox guest on almost every show on Fox, that kind of rhetoric, without facts, is unfortunately too common on Fox shows. So state me facts of what Bill or Hillary Clinton actually have done that would suggest anything illegal suggesting a special counsel.
Watch the Fox News hosts almost helpless as Davis takes a PR victory lap against Trump below, from the August 22, 2018 America’s Newsroom.
NOTE TO MICHAEL COHEN
Let’s make a deal. You expose your crooked friends, and we mean ALL of them, who are protecting Crooked, Crazy Donald through deflection, and you know who we are talking about, and you will receive the dollars to your GoFundMe page. That’s the deal.