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Dori: Michael Cohen scandal is morally reprehensible, but won’t significantly change people’s opinions of Trump
Aug 22, 2018, 8:02 PM

Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves federal court after reaching a plea agreement in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
The Michael Cohen news came down on Tuesday while we were on the air. And it’s bad. The notion of the president of the United States paying off women with whom he had affairs is ugly.
As you know if you’ve listened to the show for the past two years, the reason I didn’t vote for Trump is because of the way he talked about women. People accuse me of being a Trump apologist, but I didn’t vote for Trump and I don’t excuse his sleaziness. However, I will praise what he’s done for our economy and national defense.
In these times, where people either despise or blindly love the president, I am the rarest creature in all of media. I can’t stand the president’s morals, but I love a lot of his policies. The Trump lovers say that I’m a hater whenever I bring up his morals, and the Trump haters say that I’m an apologist whenever I bring up the economy and the good things that Trump has done. I tune it all out — it means I’m being true to myself.
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Is he going to get impeached over this? No. I’ll tell you why. If a company is doing very poorly and people are selling the stock, and the earnings report is bad, it usually doesn’t tumble on the day of the earnings. Why? Because all of the negativity was built into the stock price.
The world of politics is similar. The people who love and support the president already know that he is not true to his wife, that he’s had affairs. They’ve already built all of that into their evaluation of him; they’re not going to suddenly abandon him now over this Michael Cohen news.
I did not support the impeachment of Bill Clinton for what he did to an intern with a cigar under his desk — I didn’t feel like that, even with the perjury, rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Nor do I feel that this business with Trump rises to that level.
People are also saying that this information on Michael Cohen would have changed the 2016 election if people had known about it — that if Christian conservatives in swing states had known that Trump paid these women to be silent, they may not have cast their votes for him. That’s just nonsense. After the Access Hollywood tape was revealed, there was no denying what kind of man Trump was. I decided on that day not to vote for him. If supporters heard that tape and still voted for him, then knowing about these women would not have changed anything.
I think that this is morally reprehensible. But I don’t think Tuesday’s verdict of Michael Cohen revealed anything that has not been built into people’s opinion of the president. And I do not think it rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. If the Democrats get Trump impeached, it will be for purely political reasons. That is not what impeachment was intended to be for — it was intended for the worst of the worst.