President Donald Trump, addressing reporters Thursday in Hanoi after a breakdown in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about dismantling his country’s nuclear arsenal, said it was unfair of House Democrats to grill his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, while he was conducting high-wire negotiations on the other side of the globe.
“Having a fake hearing like that, and having it in the middle of this very important summit, is really a terrible thing,” Trump said of the explosive session on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. “They could have made it two days later or next week.”
[Michael Cohen accuses Trump of misdeeds in contentious House hearing]
He accused Cohen, who described his former boss as a “conman” and a “racist,” of lying, a charge that the witness also leveled against the president.
But Trump also praised Cohen for saying he had no “direct evidence that Mr. Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia.” Cohen said, however, that he had “suspicions.”
“He lied a lot, but it was very interesting, because he didn’t lie about one thing,” Trump said. “He said no collusion with the Russian hoax. And I said, ‘I wonder why he didn’t lie about that too like he did about everything else?’”
The president said he was “actually impressed” that his former cleanup man “didn’t say, ‘Well I think there was collusion for this reason or that.’ He didn’t say that.”