The winners and losers of Michael Cohen's House hearing
Chris Cilizza
Elijah Cummings: The Oversight Committee chairman had a very tall task -- fairly oversee a hearing that was, by its very nature, deeply partisan. And do that with a committee membership that included some of the loudest and highest profile voices on the conservative right and the liberal left. The Maryland Democrat performed that balancing act admirably, as things stayed, generally, under control.
But because AOC is, well, AOC, everyone was waiting to see how she handled her first major moment as a member of Congress. And man, did she nail it. While Ocasio-Cortez has faced criticism -- fairly, in my mind -- that she has said things without checking their veracity in her first few months in Congress, she was fact-based and incisive in her questions for Cohen on Wednesday. She zeroed in on the alleged "treasure trove" of "catch-and-kill" documents that AMI president David Pecker allegedly possesses and on the idea that Trump may have devalued his assets to pay less in taxes. Asked about her successful questioning, AOC attributed to her background as a waitress and bartender: "Forces you to get great at reading people + hones a razor-sharp BS detector.," she tweeted.
Clay Higgins: The Louisiana congressman seemed to think he had hit on a MAJOR breakthrough when Cohen talked about finding a copy of a $35,000 check from Trump while going through boxes of documents and records. "Are these not boxes that should have been turned over to investigative authorities during the many criminal investigations you've been subject to?" Higgins asked Cohen in his best "True Detective" voice. Cohen made clear that the boxes had been seized by federal authorities when they raided his house in April 2017 and had been subsequently returned to him. Higgins seemed unswayed by that fact, following up with this: "If they included data pertinent to crimes that you've committed, should they not have been turned over and remanded to investigative authority?" Dude...
Matt Gaetz: When the Florida Republican strolled into the hearing room -- pocket square perfectly in place! -- on Wednesday morning, I quickly pulled up a list of the members of the Oversight Committee and confirmed that Gaetz wasn't on it. So why was he there? To hear Gaetz tell it, he wanted to observe Cohen's testimony and hoped that he might get to ask a few questions. Oh yeah, the Democratic majority is definitely going to let a guy who tweet-threatened Cohen less than 24 hours before that just, you know, ask a few questions. Anyone else in the audience got a question for the witness? Let's open up the phone lines. You don't even go here, Matt Gaetz!
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