Michael Cohen Says Donald Trump Will Continue to Capitalize On Legal Cases for As Long As Possible
Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump's one-time fixer and personal lawyer, provided insights into Trump's strategy amid the rising legal issues he confronts in a recent interview with CNN's Jim Acosta. Cohen, a long-time member of Trump's inner circle, anticipated that Trump would continue to use his indictments for as long as possible, using them as a rallying cry for his supporters and a tool to raise funds.
Cohen said that Trump's principal goal is to agitate his base, implying a clear relationship between the severity of Trump's comments and the influx of cash contributions. The more GOP presidential candidate stirs up controversy and presents himself as the victim of a legal 'witch hunt,' the more money he gets, as per Trump's ex-attorney. Cohen called Trump's plan a 'grift,' and the former believes the latter will stick with it until the legal challenges become uncomfortably near, per The Hill.
"What he’s doing is he’s inciting his base. That’s really what it’s about, because the more he incites them, the more money that they raise,” Cohen said in the interview on Saturday before adding, “He will continue to ride this grift as long as he can." He then stated, "As far as being desperate, unfortunately, Donald doesn’t see things the way most people see them. If the case is coming up in March, for him, that’s an eternity away. It’s only when it’s around the corner, several days out or a week or so out, [that] it really start to hit him: ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really coming up and I’m going to have to defend it."
"Remember the four cases that are now pending against him have legitimate jail time. I mean, they say that if he’s charged and found guilty on all the charges, he could potentially be sentenced to over 700 years,” Cohen continued. “I mean, that’s a crazy, crazy number. So he will continue to ride this same ideology over and over and over again. It’s all in order to keep his base incited, and it’s all about the grift to raise more and more money."
Aside from commenting on Trump's legal issues, Cohen has not shied away from discussing the former president's divisive racial remarks targeting immigrants, as reported by The Wrap. Cohen, who spoke on MSNBC's The Beat, revealed that "There is no depth to which Donald will sink in order to continue to stir up his base."
"He is playing to the lowest denominator of Americans that exist in this country, the racist, antisemitic animals that exist in that MAGA world. That’s who he’s playing to," Cohen added. "And he will only go lower each and every time that he says something and he generates more and more conversation and he becomes front page news. He will then steep and go much lower to the point that even I can’t tell you how low he will go."
