OK, here’s my reality check. Republicans love trashing Michael Cohen. I can’t blame them, but after a point, it gets old. They attack the messenger, and yes, he’s an unreliable narrator, but there’s a problem. If you’re a lawyer, you trash the evidence, but then you present your counter-argument. That never happened. None of the Republicans so dutifully and energetically attacking Cohen seem to disagree with anything Cohen said under oath. That’s odd, right?
Which Republicans have stood up and declared that President Donald Trump has been falsely maligned and that our President isn’t a conman or a cheat? Which of his supporters is indignantly insisting that Trump never, ever paid off Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougal? Has anyone in the GOP provided the provably correct explanation for the checks Cohen presented to Congress? Any House Republicans explaining how President Trump has never and would never use his office for personal gain?
Has anyone said that Trump isn’t an open racist? OK, one, but I’m looking for someone who isn’t themselves a birther-spouting, Kenyan-baiting racist?
Has any elected Republican suggested that Trump has always been honest and open? Has anyone in the Republican party said that Trump has never committed the crimes that our Justice Department described in their indictments?
So my reality check is easy enough: if nobody has a better explanation, and they don’t even try, maybe the obvious answer is the right one. What if the real answer is that Trump is as guilty and miserable and truly awful as every bit of public evidence demonstrates he is.
Unless, you know, the ground truth is even worse than we know.
