George Conway Says The Cohen Hearing Was Pretty Damning For Both Trump & The GOP

On Wednesday, the president's former fixer, Michael Cohen, sat in front of the House Oversight Committee for some much anticipated — at times, explosive — questioning about his time working for Trump. Amid the grandstanding and political theater, conservative lawyer George Conway said the Cohen hearing is looking pretty bad for both Trump and the Republican party, even referring to the president as a "sociopath" and an "inveterate liar."

Cohen's testimony covered a range of questions that Democrats have been demanding answers for since before Trump even took office. The now disbarred lawyer suggested that Trump knew about the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer to discuss dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump has flip-flopped on the issue, initially giving blanket denials that the campaign had no contact with Russia. By August 2018, however, the president claimed that while it did happen, there was no wrongdoing regarding the meeting, according to Time.

Cohen also claimed the president directed him to make illegal hush money payments to women who could discredit Trump during the 2016 campaign, even providing a copy of the check Trump used to reimburse him. And he said that Trump told him to lie to Congress in his testimony in 2017. Trump has previously denied knowing about the payments, but in May claimed that they were not campaign finance violations. Without responding directly to whether he told Cohen to lie, Trump also accused Cohen of lying to "reduce his prison time."

"Sociopaths attract," Conway tweeted Wednesday morning, in response to a Washington Post op-ed headline, "Why does Trump fall in love with bad men?"

Cohen's description of Trump was largely unfavorable, at one point describing him of "capable" of kindness, generosity, and loyalty, but that ultimately he acts with none of those qualities. Conway's interpretation of Cohen's statements was a bit more succinct: "Malignant narcissism," he tweeted.

Conway's often snarky criticism extended to the GOP as well on Wednesday. Many Republican representatives on the committee chose to spend time — The Post estimates it was most of their time — attacking Cohen's credibility, rather than the former fixer's testimony. Rep. Jim Jordan in particular, repeatedly brought up Cohen's history of perjury (which he had readily admitted to), arguing that Cohen showed no "remorse" for his actions.

"Mr. Jordan, that's not what I said. And you know that that's not what I said," Cohen replied, during one of the more heated moments of the hearing. "I pled guilty and I take responsibility for my actions. Shame on you, Mr. Jordan."

Ever the political theater critic, Conway added to his live tweet stream, "Jordan just got body-slammed."

Susan Glasser, a staff writer for The New Yorker, commented on Republicans' behavior during the hearing on Twitter, asking, "How will these GOP defenses of President Trump sound a couple decades from now? Trying to imagine what these members of Congress will tell their grandkids about this moment..." According to Conway, the damage lasts far beyond the immediate consequences of Cohen's testimony. "They are disgracing themselves forever on the pages of history," he tweeted in reply. "And for what?"