Ross: Can we believe Michael Cohen after he cried ‘wolf’?
Feb 28, 2019, 8:25 AM
Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, gets emotional listening to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) give his closing statement after Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Can anyone believe an admitted liar like Michael Cohen?
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Republicans at yesterday’s Congressional committee hearing made it clear that someone who lied before is likely to be lying now. The old story of the boy who cried wolf. Lying discredits you forever. It’s a lesson all of us learn growing up.
But we overlook the alternative moral to that story which is: sometimes the liar does tell the truth.
And the consequence of failing to recognize the repentant liar is that the village loses its entire inventory of sheep and then when the winter comes the villagers have no warm sweaters and freeze to death. At least, that’s my version of the story.
The point is, when the stakes are high, best to follow every lead, just in case.
And it sounded to me like some members of Congress have decided “nothing to see here, everything’s fine.” So is everything fine?
At very end of the hearing, after just about every one except CSPAN3 and CBSN dropped their live coverage, Michael Cohen made a remark I never thought I would hear in this country:
“Given my experience working for mister Trump, I feel that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
I don’t know whether that is the cynical cry of a liar or the warning of a prophet. But I hope someone investigates. Because we are less than two years from finding out.
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