Even Joe Walsh, who once vowed to lead an armed revolution if Trump lost the election, is calling Republican lawmakers hypocrites for discrediting Cohen

(Image credit: Carolyn Kaster / AP)

published 27 February 2019

Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) was none too impressed by how the GOP members of Congress handled the questioning of Michael Cohen on Wednesday. "If Cohen had spent 10 years being a fixer for a Democrat president and then decided to testify about the nefarious things that Democrat president did and had him do, Republicans would be applauding him and calling him a hero," Walsh tweeted during the hearing.

That's a pretty big about-face for someone who once said he'd grab his "musket" on Nov. 9, 2016 if President Trump lost to Hillary Clinton.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) also took a moment on Wednesday to accuse his Republican colleagues of hypocrisy. "Don't be fooled by what my friends on the other side of the aisle are trying to do," he said of attempts to discredit Cohen as a chronic liar. Connolly added that if Congress refused to listen to every flawed witness, "it would undermine every hearing ever conducted on things like organized crime, whose key witnesses were often people who turned."

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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.