times during the lewinsky scandal. how does this president handle this pressure against the backdrop of this negotiation? is he tempted to give too much or claim too much in order to obscure what s going on here in congress? i think the actual evidence, checks and things like that are the most important. president trump, who is in vietnam, of course, for this incredible summit, a place that you re looking at right now that he wouldn t go to when it came to fighting for the united states of america. he claimed bone spurs and stayed away. he s there this morning for what many call made for tv moment and nothing more than that. foreign policy experts are actually concerned about events like this and what trump might say or do. trump is tweeting about michael cohen this morning, from hanoi. quote michael cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me, unfortunately. he had other clients also.
price, and a lot of this country is doing that. doesn t work out. on that credibility question, the statement from nbc news, the last time i came before congress, i came to protect mr. trump. today, i m here to tell the truth about mr. trump, perhaps explaining the lies he told last time he was there. in addition to the allegations he makes about wikileaks and meeting at trump tower and others, there is personal stuff. the testimony will offer what he says is a private view of president trump s thoughts on race. cohen is expected to say trump quote once asked me if i could name a country run by a black person that won t an s-hole, this was when barack obama was president of the united states. while we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in chicago he commented only black people could live that way. he told me black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid, and yet i continued to work for him. cohen also reportedly revealed
because trump personalizes everything, and all presidents, to be sure, are prone to this, as richard pointed out, churchill and roosevelt s staff used to go crazy when roosevelt and churchill would be with stalin because they would get together and think they could solve the world s problems and it would take the staff six months to undo whatever agreement they d come to over vodka. there is a peril of summitry. it can be wonderful. it can also be quite perilous. what i think we re seeing here is this produced version of the presidency that is about trump s odd, and i will keep saying it s odd, although it may not be odd that much anymore. odd affinity for authoritarian figures. wendy, does that track for you? absolutely.
are two. as the president has dinner with a man known as a murderous dictator who starves his people, they re preparing for dinner now, he s being described as a racist, con man and cheat we will hear from his former fixer, michael cohen, and will use those words. a draft of cohen s opening statement obtained by nbc news includes allegations that the president had advanced knowledge about hacked democratic e-mails, that donald trump jr. alerted his father about what cohen believes was the june 2016 trump tower meeting with russians, offering dirt on hillary clinton. cohen also claims trump indirectly encouraged him to lie about seeking a real estate deal in moscow. remember, the president said, i ve got nothing with russia.
his efforts to conceal donald trump s education records after the president claimed for years that he graduated first in his class from wharton. cohen plans to say, i m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the college board to never release his grades or sat scores. i m giving the committee today copies of a letter i sent, at mr. trump s direction, threatening these schools with civil and criminal action if there trump s grades and s.a.t. scores were ever disclosed without his permission. the irony wasn t lost at the time in 2011, he strongly criticized president obama for not releasing his grades after calling president obama quote a terrible student. now, let s go and you had a chance to look at the statement mr. cohen will deliver to the