Michel Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, said Tuesday that the president was fixated on his predecessor Barack Obama and attributed it to envy.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow cited a passage in Cohen’s book, “Disloyal,” in which Cohen suggests Trump did not necessarily believe false claims that Obama was born outside the U.S. Rather, the book states, Trump was seeking to capitalize on issues that “would arouse strong feelings for those who took his side.”
“His hatred for Barack Obama is plain and simple: he’s Black, he went to Harvard Law, he graduated at the top of his class, he’s incredibly articulate, he’s all the things that Donald Trump wants to be,” Cohen said. “And he just can’t handle it. So what do you do if you’re Donald Trump and you can’t handle it? You attack it.”
Cohen claims in the book, which was released Tuesday, that Trump frequently made racist remarks about both Obama and Nelson Mandela in private. He also released a photo from a video set to air at the 2012 Republican National Convention in which Trump “fires” an Obama impersonator. The segment was later canceled.
Cohen, who was convicted of campaign finance violations in 2018, has frequently analogized the president to a mob boss and a “cult leader” in his appearances promoting the book. The tell-all also suggests that then-Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump in 2016 in return for Cohen suppressing explicit photos of Falwell’s wife.
The president’s former lawyer has also advised Trump to resign, saying he would likely be in legal trouble unless Vice President Pence becomes president and pardons him.
The White House has vehemently denied the claims in the book.
“Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer who lied to Congress,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. “He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies.”