Jimmy Kimmel is agog at Michael Cohen's takedown of Trump and the GOP's blustery pushback


"Today was a very dramatic day for the government of the United States," Jimmy Kimmel said on Wednesday's Kimmel Live. In a hearing before the House Oversight Committee, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen "delivered an opening statement that somehow managed to mention both the Holocaust and a porn star, and we were off to the races from there. Michael Cohen, who worked for the president for 10 years, called his former boss a racist, a conman, and a cheat, but said he served him because being around Trump was 'intoxicating' — but not in a bottle-of-wine kind of a [way], more of a cocktails-with-Cosby type of thing."
"Republicans were relentless in their blind defense of the president," Kimmel said. "Nixon must be so jealous of these guys. ... It was quite a show of outrage and bluster. I tell you, I haven't seen acting from Republicans like this since Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way." And keep in mind, he added, the man they were attacking "was Donald Trump's right-hand man for 10 years. This guy was so loyal to Donald Trump, he took out a loan on his house to pay off a porn star he didn't even get to have sex with. Imagine refinancing your mortgage so your boss can sexually disappoint someone for two minutes at a golf tournament."
Kimmel ran though Cohen's various "bombshells," including allegations that the feds are investigating Trump for crimes we don't even know about, that Trump ordered Cohen to quash his SAT scores, and in "one of my favorite moments of the day," that Trump often said Donald Trump Jr. "had the worst judgment of anyone in the world." But there was also a deeply sad part of Wednesday's hearing, "because long before Donald Trump had this relationship with Kim Jong Un, Michael Cohen was his guy," he said. "And so we thought it might be fitting to take a look back at the friendship that was." You can watch that below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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