While President Donald Trump was in Vietnam attempting to negotiate denuclearization with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the Democrat-led House Oversight Committee held a public hearing in which Trump’s embittered former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was granted a platform to disparage the president.
Trump ultimately felt compelled to walk away from negotiations with North Korea without a deal, and now it appears that he is casting at least partial blame on the Democrat- and media-perpetuated circus that was Cohen’s hearing.
“New low in American politics”
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump wrote, “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the ‘walk.'”
For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019
That message was echoed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s This Week, a clip of which was shared by Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and retweeted by the president.
McCarthy said of the Cohen hearing, “In the past with America, politics ends at the water’s edge. No, they are having this hearing right then. They’re discrediting America. They dislike this president so much, they won’t give him the opportunity to try and denuclearize North Korea, that they’d have a hearing that day.”
I completely agree with Kevin McCarthy.
While @realDonaldTrump was in Vietnam, Democrats were making bogus attacks back in DC. pic.twitter.com/4qJNHVcvs4
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) March 3, 2019
Questionable timing
The Washington Examiner noted that Trump initially discussed the issue during a press conference while still in Hanoi, and expressed his displeasure at that time about what the Democrats — aided by the liberal media — had done to distract from, if even purposefully sabotage, his effort at securing a historic agreement that would contribute mightily to world peace.
“It’s very interesting, because I tried to watch as much as I could,” Trump said of the Cohen hearing, and joked with a bit of snark, “I wasn’t able to watch too much because I’ve been a little bit busy.”
“But I think having a fake hearing like that, and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing. They could’ve made it two days later or next week, and it would’ve been even better. They would’ve had more time,” said the president.
Blocking Trump achievements at any cost
The president was absolutely right in that the Democrat-led House committee could have scheduled the Cohen hearing for any other time than when it would be in direct competition with the Trump-Kim summit, and he is certainly not alone in suspecting that Democrats may have deliberately scheduled the hearing when they did for the precise purpose of undermining the negotiations.
However, as McCarthy pointed out, Democrats and the media despise the president so much that they would rather sabotage an effort at achieving historic peace than allow Trump to get a “win” that would bolster his presidency, such as obtaining a peace agreement with a bitter rival that would end a 70-year-old war and reduce nuclear tensions around the world.