'Picture perfect example of what not to do'published at 18:16 Greenwich Mean Time 27 February 2019
Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter
The Republican strategy for responding to Cohen’s testimony has been clear from the beginning.
They want to paint the former lawyer as a convicted liar who can’t be trusted on any count. They’re less concerned about rebutting the individual allegations – about Trump Tower, Russia business dealings, hush-money payments or WikiLeaks revelations – than they are in dismissing Cohen’s testimony as the work of an untruthful man being put forward by enemies of the president for political purposes.
Congressman Paul Gosar went so far as to hold up a large sign with "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!!" emblazoned over a picture of the witness.
Cohen has tried to parry these charges multiple ways. One is to claim that he has come to the realisation, after Trump’s performance as president, of how damaging his support of his former boss has been. He cited the Charlottesville violence, the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin and the president’s coarseness on Twitter as prime examples. That could be a tough sell, however, given the litany of allegations Cohen has levelled against Trump that predate his time as president.
A more effective counter has been when Cohen has tried to hold himself up as a cautionary tale – that he is making amends because his life has come crashing down and not the other way around.
"I protected Trump for 10 years," he told the committee. "The more people that follow Mr Trump as I did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering."
He called himself the "picture perfect example of what not to do".
Cohen isn’t going to convince many that he’s a saint or a sympathetic figure. When he’s been his most effective on Wednesday is when he hasn’t tried to.