During Friday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham slammed the media for coming down with a case of “horrific amnesia” when it comes to their treatment of President Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen. After playing some clips of an interview Cohen did with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Ingraham remarked: “the most remarkable thing about this interview, aside from its transparency, is the idea that the media, they now see Cohen, as some type of, almost an honest broker” before pointing out that “that’s a lot different from the way they viewed him during the campaign days.”
Ingraham went on to play clips of an MSNBC guest calling Cohen a “thug,” CNN’s S.E. Cupp calling Cohen a “goon” and urging then-candidate Trump to sever his ties with Cohen, Never-Trumper Ana Navarro calling Cohen a “thug with a law degree and a billionaire boss,” and Never-Trumper Steve Schmidt calling Cohen a “scum bag.” When introducing guests Alan Dershowitz and Kim Strassel, Ingraham once again pointed out how Cohen went from “this thug, fixer, goon as they called him to now a media darling,” before contrasting the media’s previous coverage of Cohen with the roundtable at Good Morning America “empathizing with him” and acting like it was “a beautiful moment for him to come forward and unburden himself to George Stephanopoulos.”
Both Ingraham and Dershowitz seemed suspicious of the idea that Cohen’s “heart is as pure as the driven snow,” with Ingraham sarcastically reacting to Stephanopoulos’ assertion that Cohen wants to make amends: “Right, George, all Cohen’s motives are entirely patriotic. He’s doing this all for America, for our children and our grandchildren. It has nothing to do with the fact that Cohen wants to have his jail time shaved off in exchange for more cooperation.”
Dershowitz agreed, saying “I’m sure he has mixed motives, he wants to appear to his peers and friends and families to have seen evil and redemption and he also obviously has a secondary purpose, the secondary gain of trying to get a reduction of sentence, which I think is unlikely to happen.”
The media first began warming up to Cohen long before his interview with Stephanopoulos. MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch began thawing toward Cohen when he finally took his advice to turn on President Trump seven months earlier. The media has only developed a sudden respect for Cohen, because he appears to share their current objective, which, as Rush Limbaugh pointed out, is “to get rid of Donald Trump.”
With their current objective in mind, it seems like the media have adopted the new slogan “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” as they seek to #Impeach45 or at the very least, make him a one-term President. That might explain why Stephanopoulos has become Cohen’s “new best bud,” as Ingraham put it. As Ingraham reported, “Cohen was ordered to report to jail on March 6th so expect to see three more months of ‘I’m a changed man’ narratives and ‘I’m really sorry’ sob stories.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Ingraham Angle
12/14/18
10:00 PM
LAURA INGRAHAM: Good evening everybody, I’m Laura Ingraham and this is a very busy news night tonight from Washington. We begin with the curious case of Michael Cohen and a media with a case of horrific amnesia. This morning, President Trump’s former fixer, lawyer, whatever you want to call him, he sat down for an interview with his new best bud, former Bill Clinton Senior Advisor George Stephanopoulos and in this interview, he offered a rather patriotic Christmas-type hope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN: The country has never been more divisive and one of the hopes that I have out of the punishment that I have received as well as the cooperation that I have given, I will be remembered in history as helping to bring this country back together.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: He wants to make amends, does not know exactly how he’s going to do it.
CECILIA VEGA: Is that why you think he’s talking right now?
STEPHANOPOULOS: I think that’s part of it. I think he’s in a lot of pain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Right, George, all Cohen’s motives are entirely patriotic. He’s doing this all for America, for our children and our grandchildren. It has nothing to do with the fact that Cohen wants to have his jail time shaved off in exchange for more cooperation.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you still cooperating?
COHEN: If they want me, I’m here. And I’m willing to answer whatever additional questions that they may have for me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Right, but is it you’re saying there are certain areas that you can’t get into because you’re still cooperating with them.
COHEN: Correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Oh boy, did he lay it on thick, he’s kind of a new man, right? He feels liberated. I like the turtle neck too, it was kind of an Andy Williams Christmas special feel to it all. And he also wants you to know that Trump’s bad but his heart is as pure as the driven snow and yet at times, he seemed to hearken back to the days of old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: There was a lot of fun going on at the Trump Organization.
STEPHANOPOULOS: When did it change?
COHEN: You know, I can’t give you a specific time that it went from point A to point B, it was just a change. I will tell you that the gentleman that is sitting now in the Oval Office, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is not the Donald Trump that I remember from Trump Tower.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How so?
COHEN: He’s a very, he’s a very different individual.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Cue Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were.” Well, first, he doesn’t speak to the President anymore. Second, no one entering the presidency really understands it until he or she gets behind that desk in the Oval Office. The difference with this President is that even before he was sworn in, the DOJ and the FBI, led by Comey, was already scheming to remove him from office using a phony dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton, deploying their friends in the media to spread disinformation to cement a narrative that Trump was basically spooning with Putin before, during, and after the campaign. And by the way, I was watching this this morning and at this…at some point he bizarrely after painting this picture of the President as a hopeless liar, Cohen went on to say this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: There are a lot of people who might be watching who are going to be thinking, but wait a second, he lied for so long, why should we believe him now? What’s the answer to that?
COHEN: What do you mean lied? Lied about what? At the Trump Organization, it’s a microcosm of even just the New York real estate market, what did we lie about? It’s New York real estate, yes, it’s the greatest product ever created, is that a lie?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: I’m confused. Was Trump was a hopeless liar or didn’t lie? The most remarkable thing about this interview, aside from its transparency, is the idea that the media, they now see Cohen as some type of almost an honest broker, that’s a lot different from the way they viewed him during the campaign days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
STACY PHILLIPS: He shouldn’t be a lawyer. That’s not the way you communicate, you don’t go to law school to act like a thug.
SE CUPP: Michael Cohen, the goon that he is…If he’s serious about becoming President, he’s got to get rid of the goons. Michael Cohen does him absolutely no favors.
ANA NAVARRO: This guy is a thug with a law degree and a billionaire boss.
STEVE SCHMIDT: It’s a group of scumbags like Michael Cohen sitting around, in cahoots with each other…
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
INGRAHAM: It’s nice to see the word scumbag used with the American flag behind him. Well, Cohen was ordered to report to jail on March 6th so expect to see three more months of “I’m a changed man” narratives and “I’m really sorry” sob stories. I just can’t wait to see where he ends up next. Maybe, I don’t know, Rachael Ray, does she have an open booking? You know, Cohen’s been stirring it up for so long, I’m sure he would be great in the kitchen. Joining me now with reaction is Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School and Kim Strassel, Wall Street Journal columnist. Alan, so Michael Cohen goes from this thug, a fixer, goon as they called him to now a media darling. I was watching the roundtable at Good Morning America and, oh, they were empathizing with them, and it was…it was a beautiful moment for Michael Cohen to come forward and unburden himself to George Stephanopoulos. No other motive possible for him to come forward right now. How credible are these sob stories?
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Well, I’ve had about 250 criminal defendants that I have represented and many of them, after they’re caught, have gone on this kind of redemption tour or redemption campaign. Frankly, I think they really persuade themselves that they mean it, they persuade their family and they want to mean it because nobody wants to be a phony. So I suspect that deep in his heart, Cohen thinks he’s a changed man. If he got out of jail, would anybody really hire him to teach ethics somewhere? I doubt that very much. But I’m sure he has mixed motives, he wants to appear to his peers and friends and families to have seen evil and redemption and he also obviously has a secondary purpose, the secondary gain of trying to get a reduction of sentence, which I think is unlikely to happen.
