During Tuesday's edition of CNN's New Day, a package narrated by Gloria Borger was aired, painting a very unflattering picture of President Trump's longtime attorney and confidante Michael Cohen, who had his office raided by federal investigators on Monday. Accompanied by eerie music that would ordinarily appear in a film-noir or big screen thriller, Borger's narration described Cohen as a "consigliere," while one of the subjects she interviewed referred to him as President Trump's "Mini-Me."
The reporter introduced her package by describing the Trump Presidency as a “soap opera in which a porn star accepts a payoff to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump.” As the segment began, the chyron “Michael Cohen: President Trump’s Loyal Fixer” appeared on the bottom of the screen.
Borger interviewed several subjects for her piece, most of whom do not have a favorable view of President Trump. She managed to secure an interview with Sam Nunberg, the Former Trump aide who became a media darling after he said during a series of interviews that the Special Counsel may have something on the President. Nunberg referred to Cohen as President Trump’s Ray Donovan, a fictional TV “fixer” who has the signature phrase “I’ll take care of it.”
She also interviewed Michael Cohen’s attorney David Schwartz, who said that “Every dinner I’ve been at with Michael, the boss has called.” Following that statement from Schwartz, Borger declared: “Cohen did not call the boss, he says, when he decided to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket 11 days before the election.” Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, referred to such a claim as “ludicrous.”
Referring to Cohen as the President’s "consigliere," Borger added, “a version of his longtime mentor, the lawyer Roy Cohn, a controversial pit bull and aggressive defender of all things Trump, no questions asked.” President Trump has referenced his relationship with Cohn, asking “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Carl Bernstein brought this up when trying to compare President Trump to the “authoritarian demagogue” Joe McCarthy, whom Cohn also worked with.
Borger sat down with Michael D’Antonio, a biographer who wrote an unflattering profile on Trump. D’Antonio referred to Cohen as the President’s “Mini-Me" and accused Cohen of threatening him by saying, "you've got yourself an f-ing lawsuit, buddy."
She asked D’Antonio if Cohen had any desire to work in the Trump White House or serve as White House Counsel. In his response, D’Antonio referred to Cohen as “the guy who not only knows where all the bodies are buried, he buried a lot of them himself and that ironically disqualified him.”
The eight-minute segment featured many unflattering poses of Cohen, including one of the President’s attorney looking at a black-and-white reflection of himself in the mirror. One who did not know better could have easily mistaken the piece on Cohen for a profile on a serial killer.
The profile on Cohen airs just one day after FBI agents raided his office and hotel room. The media probably already had a negative opinion of Cohen, who has described himself as “Mr. Trump’s pit bull”, to begin with. The news of the FBI raid, which first broke less than 24 hours ago probably only reinforced their pre-existing opinions of him as a thug. If nothing else, it gave CNN an excuse to air this hit piece.
A transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more:
CNN New Day
04/10/18
07:51 AM
ALISYN CAMEROTA: The FBI raided the office and hotel room of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. CNN has learned that authorities seized information relating to Stormy Daniels in the raid. Mr. Cohen admitted he paid $130,000 in exchange for Daniels’ silence about an alleged affair. And that’s just one of many moves that Cohen has made to try to protect his famous client. CNN’s Gloria Borger has more on President Trump’s loyal fixer.
GLORIA BORGER: In the soap opera in which a porn star accepts a payoff to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump, there’s got to be a guy who gets it done.
MICHAEL AVENATTI: Where is Michael Cohen?
(New clip)
AVENATTI: Where’s Mr. Cohen?
(New clip)
AVENATTI: Where is this guy?
(New clip)
AVENATTI: Where is this guy?
BORGER: Michael Cohen is where he’s been since 2007, standing behind Donald Trump or closer, in his back pocket.
SAM NUNBERG: Michael was, I’d always like to say the Ray Donovan, of the office.
RAY DONOVAN: I’ll take care of it.
NUNBERG: He took care of what had to be taken care of. I don’t know what had to be taken care of but all I know is that Michael was taking care of it.
DAVID SCHWARTZ, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL COHEN: He’s the guy that you could call at 3 in the morning when you have a problem.
BORGER: Do you know stories of Donald Trump calling him at 3 in the morning?
SCHWARTZ: Donald Trump has called him at all hours of the night. Every dinner I’ve been at with Michael, the boss has called.
BORGER: But Cohen did not call the boss, he says, when he decided to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket 11 days before the election.
AVENATTI: I think it’s ludicrous.
BORGER: So you believe 100 percent Donald Trump knew?
AVENATTI: 100 percent.
MICHAEL D’ANTONIO, TRUMP BIOGRAPHER: There’s not a meeting that takes place, there’s not an expenditure that is authorized that he doesn’t know about.
BORGER: Cohen wouldn’t go on the record for this piece but his friends claim it’s all part of his job in Trump world. Giving the boss deniability and protection.
SCHWARTZ: If you know the relationship between the two people, he took care of a lot of things for Mr. Trump without Mr. Trump knowing about it. That’s part of the overall structure is that Michael had great latitude to take care of matters.
BORGER: In Michael Cohen, Trump hired his consigliere, a version of his longtime mentor, the lawyer Roy Cohn, a controversial pit bull and aggressive defender of all things Trump, no questions asked. After D’Antonio finished his book on Trump, he got the Cohen treatment in what turned out to be an empty threat.
D’ANTONIO: Then he got mad and it was well, you just bought yourself an f-ing lawsuit, buddy. I’ll see you in court.
BORGER: In 2011, Michael Cohen described his job this way.
COHEN: My job is, I protect Mr. Trump. That’s what it is. If there’s an issue that relates to Mr. Trump that is of concern to him, it’s of course concern to me and I will use my legal skills within which to protect Mr. Trump to the best of my ability.
BORGER: Cohen, a sometimes Democrat, first came to Trump’s attention after buying apartments in Trump developments, then went to the mat for Trump against one of his condo boards and won.
SCHWARTZ: Trump loved him for it. I mean, that was the beginning of it and then after that, they became close. It was much more than an attorney-client relationship. It was, it was something much deeper, almost father and son kind of, kind of thing. Always hot and cold, they, Donald Trump could be yelling at him one second and saying he’s the greatest person in the world the next second. Donald Trump knew that Michael always had his back.
BORGER: For Trump, it wasn’t about pedigree. Cohen, who is 51, got his degree from Western Michigan’s Cooley Law School and had some initial success in the less than gentile world of New York taxi cab medallions.
NUNBERG: If you look where Michael came from in his legal career before he started working for Trump Org, it wasn’t like he came from a white shoe law firm. He came from, you know, a hard nosed, a hard nosed New York trial firm. Trump has an eye for talent and this was somebody that I mean, he used to call him his bulldog, his tough guy.
BORGER: At the Trump Organization, he’s done a bit of everything; running a mixed martial arts company, securing real estate branding deals and even taking care of transportation.
NUNBERG: You know, the famous Trump plane? There was an engine issue that he actually take care of and got a really good deal on.
SCHWARTZ: Watching him is, is, it’s like, it’s like a reality show. He’s got three phones, he’s got the hard line, he’s got two lines, he’s texting. He’s on the computer.
D’ANTONIO: You can almost say this is Donald Trump’s Mini-Me. For a guy who started really in the middle class on Long Island to now be quite wealthy himself, known internationally and, yes, he’s in a bit of a jam with the Russia scandal.
BORGER: In the eye not only of Stormy but also of interest to the Special Counsel Bob Mueller and Congress.
COHEN: I look forward to giving all the information that they’re looking for.
BORGER: During the campaign, when Trump said he had no contact with Russia, Cohen was privately trying to cut a deal for a Trump Tower Moscow. It never happened but Mueller has asked about it.
NUNBERG: The sad reality is that Michael pursuing that Trump Tower deal in December is just another factor that goes into this whole Russia narrative.
BORGER: Cohen’s name was also in the infamous dossier which alleges he traveled to Prague to meet with Russians. He’s completely denied it and is suing Buzzfeed, which published it.
SCHWARTZ: It’s immeasurable the damage that’s been caused to him, to his family.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I will faithfully execute...
BORGER: When Trump became President, he did not bring his brash wingman to Washington. Do you think he wanted to be in the White House, be White House Counsel or...
D’ANTONIO: There must have been a part of him that was dreaming of a great job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but he’s also the guy who not only knows where all the bodies are buried, he buried a lot of them himself and that ironically disqualified him.
COHEN: They say I’m Mr. Trump’s pit bull, that I am his, I’m his right hand man. I mean there’s, I’ve been called many different things around here.
BORGER: Now he may be called to testify with the Stormy Daniels case in Federal Court.
SCHWARTZ: I know Michael Cohen for over 21 years and I know that he will not rest, he will not sleep, he doesn’t sleep anyway, right, until he recovers every single penny from Stormy that’s due the LLC.
AVENATTI: I’ve seen a lot of attorneys use intimidation tactics. The problem is, is if that is your speed and if you are a one-trick pony and you use that in every case, when all of a sudden you run up against somebody that doubles down and that isn’t intimidated, well, then you’re lost.
BORGER: Cohen flew to Mar-a-Lago to dine with the President the night before Stormy Daniels appeared on 60 Minutes because if you’re Michael Cohen, you’re the ultimate loyalist.
COHEN: The words the media should be using to describe Mr. Trump are generous, compassionate.
BORGER: And you still believe Donald Trump will be loyal.
COHEN: Kind, humble, honest.
BORGER: To you. Gloria Borger, CNN, Washington.
