Of all the contemptible episodes of political theater Congress has ever produced, Michael Cohen's seven-hour hearing before the House Oversight Committee is without precedent.  Has there ever been a more seditious, mendacious, and just plain degrading spectacle?  

While America's president was overseas conducting a nuclear disarmament summit with a hostile communist dictator, the new Democrat majority in the House used their very first hearing to undermine his credibility on worldwide TV.  Given the depraved character of modern Democrats, the hearing's circus-like atmosphere was predictable, but the timing of the event can be taken to mean only that they're more interested in impeaching President Trump than in avoiding a nuclear holocaust.  That's a chilling realization.

As the ranking Republican on the committee, Jim Jordan, pointed out in his opening, this was the Lanny Davis show from concept to planning and execution.  Davis is well known as the longtime fixer for the Clinton crime family.  To those of us who remember the many Clinton scandals, he's considered just as dishonest, unethical, and ruthless as Michael Cohen ever was, although obviously much more polished and effective.  Does anyone doubt that Cohen's 30-minute opening, used to slander and denigrate Trump, was composed by Davis to inflict maximum political damage?

Davis captured Cohen for the Resistance after he was indicted for tax and bank fraud.  Davis likely promised to use his Clinton connections with the highly partisan Southern District of New York to win Cohen a reduced sentence.  He would also have to implicate Trump, which explains why Cohen would plead guilty to a charge of campaign finance violation that isn't in fact a crime and never would have stood up in court.  

Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to this same Oversight Committee concerning the inconsequential timing of his conversations with Felix Sater.  Sater is a longtime FBI and CIA informant who was dangling the prospect of a Trump tower in Moscow if only Cohen could entice Trump to communicate with Vladimir Putin — nothing at all suspicious about that.

As former assistant attorney for the SDNY, Andrew McCarthy, points out that Cohen might have been led to believe that his testimony at the hearing could further reduce his sentence.  But that's assuming he escapes prosecution for perjuring himself yet again before the committee, including claiming he never sought a job in the White House — something the opposite of which Cohen previously admitted on CNN.  Republicans have already made criminal referrals for this and other lies under oath. 

By putting him back before the committee — something no competent attorney would do — Davis exposed Cohen to additional charges.  But Davis is apparently doing this all out of the goodness of his heart.  It was revealed that Cohen isn't actually paying for Davis to represent him, which makes perfect sense, because Davis isn't acting in Cohen's best interest.

During Cohen's testimony, he accused Trump of being a racist, a con man, and a cheat.  Racist is the go-to slur Democrats use against anyone who opposes them, but it's worth noting that Trump became a racist in their eyes when he decided to run against Hillary.  Prior to that, he received recognition and awards from the NAACP and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition, and was bosom buddies with the black glitterati.

Cohen regurgitated the Democrats' talking point that Trump stiffed contractors on his construction projects, instructing Cohen, as his attorney, to tell them they wouldn't be paid, or they would be paid a reduced amount.  Considering the scale of projects Trump has developed over a long career, this is unremarkable.  Anyone who has employed contractors knows they often pad their bills and sometimes mess up jobs so badly that it costs even more than the original invoice to have the work redone.

As far as con man goes, Cohen offered that Trump had attempted to reduce his tax bills by appealing assessments on his properties.  This appeared to excite the Democrats who spent much of the day heaping praise on a convicted perjurer who was violating the sacred attorney-client privilege.

On matters of substance related to Russia collusion, Cohen admitted he had no knowledge to prove any of it and debunked several of the details in the Clinton-produced dossier, including the claim that Cohen had traveled to Prague — a cornerstone of the hoax.  Unable to provide any verifiable testimony or evidence regarding collusion, Cohen was left to say it sounded like something Trump would do and that he once overheard Roger Stone telling Trump that WikiLeaks intended to dump damaging information on Hillary Clinton — something that by that time had already been published in newspapers.

Now that Mueller's investigation is reportedly winding down with no evidence of collusion, the Democrats clearly signaled they have no intention of allowing the president to focus on his America First agenda, much less on nuclear disarmament of rogue states.  Much of the Democrats' questioning had nothing to do with Trump's election or his administration, but his past personal matters and business dealing.  Among other questions, they asked if Trump had ever struck Melania, used drugs, or paid for an abortion.  Cohen answered no.

Chairman Elijah Cummings has changed the name of his committee from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to just House Committee on Oversight and Reform.  Cummings and his committee show no intention of limiting themselves to the proper, constitutional role of government oversight.  Instead, they are shifting gears to probe every aspect of Trump's business and private life — and that of his family and his associates — in order to impeach him or prevent his re-election.  It's amazing they don't realize that disgusting displays like this hearing will have the exact opposite effect.

The author hosts Right Now with Jim Daws, a webcast on news, politics, and culture from an American nationalist perspective.  https://twitter.com/RightNowJimDaws

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