Court Battles

Michael Cohen: Trump ‘knows exactly what he’s saying’ with ‘poisoning the blood’ comments

Michael Cohen arrives after a lunch break in former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Ex-attorney Michael Cohen slammed former President Trump’s recent comment that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country,” arguing he is fully aware of the impact of his rhetoric.

“There is no depth to which Donald [Trump] will sink in order to continue to stir up his base,” Cohen, who once served as Trump’s personal fixer, said in an interview on MSNBC.

“Donald knows exactly what he’s saying. He’s playing to the lowest denominator of American that exists in this country — the racist, anti-semitic animals that exist up in that MAGA world,” he added later.

The former attorney suggested that Trump would “only go lower” with his attacks.

“He will only go lower each and every time that he says something and he generates more and more conversation and he becomes front page news,” Cohen continued. “He will then steep and go much lower to the point that even I can’t tell you how long he will go.”

His comments join the growing chorus of those who have condemned the former president for remarks he made during a rally in New Hampshire, where he claimed immigrants were “pouring into the United States and ‘poisoning the blood of our country.'”

“All over the world, they’re coming into our country. From Africa, from Asia, all over the world,” Trump said in New Hampshire, suggesting the influx will lead to an uptick in crime and terrorism. 

The comments drew comparisons to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, which Trump dismissed days later at a rally in Iowa.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country,” Trump said, referring to Hitler’s manifesto. “They don’t like it when I said that — and I never read ‘Mein Kampf.'”

Cohen scoffed at the comment, claiming Trump “doesn’t read.”

“Now of course, Donald has not read ‘Mein Kampf,’ Donald doesn’t read. I mean, its not that he didn’t want to read it, it’s just that unless it’s in cliff notes, or unless somebody wants to read it to him, Donald does not read,” Cohen quipped. “You got guys like Steve Miller [a former Trump adviser], who are writing these speeches for him and discussing it with him so he knows exactly what he said.”

Discussing anecdotes from his books “Disloyal” and “Revenge,” about previous private conversations with Trump, Cohen claimed the former president’s current rhetoric is mirroring his private talks.

“Everything is a regurgitation of something from the past,” Cohen said in the interview. “You know, he is truly the most dangerous person right now in this country and possibly the world. And we better start taking this incredibly seriously, otherwise we’re going to lose our Democracy.”

Cohen, once one of Trump’s closest confidants, has since emerged as a staunch critic of the former president.

He has testified in multiple court cases against the former president, including in the New York civil fraud trial — where Trump and his adult sons are accused of more than a decade of fraud.

Tags Donald Trump Michael Cohen MSNBC Trump indictments

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