Rep. AOC Proves Cohen Hearing Is Not Just About Russia
Did you watch Micheal Cohen give his testimony to the House Oversight Committee yesterday? If you’ve been following the rollercoaster that our country is currently experiencing when it comes to Trump, Russia, and Cohen, you know it’s a hot mess — but also like a telenovela
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Franmarie Metzler; U.S. House Office of Photography
Did you watch Micheal Cohen give his testimony to the House Oversight Committee yesterday? If you’ve been following the rollercoaster that our country is currently experiencing when it comes to Trump, Russia, and Cohen, you know it’s a hot mess — but also like a telenovela. Cohen has already pleaded guilty; he’s already going to jail for his actions while working for President Donald Trump, so his testimony now is for the public and mainly for the House Oversight Committee to figure out what the next step will be in this investigation.
What’s really telling about how this investigation will go, is that more Democrats are now on the committee, thanks to our past midterm elections. That means more women — and women of color — are sitting on that committee including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. So how did our newest representatives handle their first public hearing with Trump’s former lawyer? Outstanding.
While Republicans stuck to their game of calling Cohen a liar and questioning his credibility, the Democrats, and in particular, the newbies took his testimony a step further. They used their time to take the hearing to another level and get more information out of Cohen rather than just focusing on Russia and the fact that he has lied in the past.
Rep. Tlaib got in deep when she pointed out that the president is racist, and hiring one black woman on his cabinet (and/or staff) doesn’t negate that.
“Just because someone has a person of color, a black person, working for them does not mean they aren’t racist,” Rep. Tlaib said. “And it is insensitive … the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself.”
Before the committee wrapped up the hearing, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said that the committee had to go over new materials that had been disclosed or would be disclosed during the session.
“You know the documents were just provided this morning, so we need to really go through that, but I think there’s some very gravely concerning evidence and some new evidence,” Ocasio-Cortez said, according to CNN.
The back-and-forth between Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Cohen was spectacular. She was clear cut, to the point, and presented a new line of questioning that could bring a whole new set of incriminating information against Trump. One thing that she did that was spectacular, was not only bring up Trump’s taxes, which is something the Democrats have wanted since before his election, but also how Trump’s actions have affected her community — the people that voted for her.
New York magazine writes: “She was crisp, succinct, and very focused on raising some previously undiscussed potential criminal liability issues for Trump that Cohen’s testimony suggested (e.g, insurance fraud), including several where the hot-button issue of Trump’s missing tax returns might be germane.”
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has proved she is more than qualified to be sitting in Congress, but yesterday’s line of questioning demonstrates even further that she means business. Today, the Congresswoman tweeted: “People think it’s a joke when folks say we have to work 2x as hard for the same seat. Whether you believe it or not, the upside is when we do get here, we’re used to being held to a diff bar. To being doubted. To getting new hoops thrown @ us last min. So we know how to perform.”
Check out yesterday’s exchange below.
