Watch Michael Cohen, former head of Trump's National Diversity Coalition, call Trump a racist

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Michael Cohen's opening statement to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday was full of eye-popping moments, not the least of which was Cohen's claim that President Trump frequently made racist comments in his presence. "Mr. Trump is a racist," Cohen announced, adding as examples that the president "once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn't a 's--thole' ... While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. And he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid."

Cohen's confession was particularly shocking because just a few short years ago, Cohen founded and headed the National Diversity Coalition for Trump and passionately argued that the then-candidate was not racist in a nearly 10-minute speech, Mediaite reports.

"I've lost count as to how many times the disgusting, liberal, mainstream media have attempted to label Mr. Donald Trump a racist, a xenophobe, and a bigot," Cohen said at the time, adding: "As the son of a Holocaust survivor, it's hard to sit back — actually, it's morally wrong to sit back and do nothing when someone who you know, someone who you hold in great esteem and truly care about is being so viciously attacked, day in and day out. Not only is Donald Trump not a racist, he believes that all people are part of one race: the human race."

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Watch Cohen's 2016 defense of Trump at Mediaite, and watch Cohen call Trump a racist, below. Jeva Lange

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.