Cohen has opened up about series of racist comments Donald Trump made over the years. Photo / AP
Cohen has opened up about series of racist comments Donald Trump made over the years. Photo / AP
Longtime Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has leveled extraordinary claims of racism at his former boss, claiming he used racist language and attacked countries with black leader as "s***holes".
In just one example Cohen confided to Vanity Fair, he described how he told Trump during the 2016 election that one of his rally crowds was mostly white, reports Daily Mail.
"I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television. Trump responded, 'That's because black people are too stupid to vote for me,' Cohen told the magazine.
Cohen also referenced a conversation he says he had with Trump after Nelson Mandela's death.
"[Trump] said to me, 'Name one country run by a black person that's not a s***hole,' and then he added, 'Name one city,'" Cohen said.
That remark recalls earlier reports that Trump as president referred to "s***hole countries" in reference to African nations.
At the time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied the incendiary remark, then added: "No one here is going to pretend like the president is always politically correct—he isn't."
In yet another stunning claim, Cohen told the publication about a conversation about Season One "Apprentice" contestants Bill Rancic and Kwame Jackson.
According to Cohen, Trump explained his difficulty selecting a winner and not selecting Jackson, an African-American Harvard business grad. "He said, 'There's no way I can let this black f*g win,'" according to Cohen.
Jackson told the magazine he was aware of the comment, although he did not say when he knew about it, and used a line from Black Panther in response: "Not today, coloniser!"
In yet another Cohen account, pegged to the late 2000s, he recalled a conversation with Trump en route to Chicago from a Trump hotel board meeting, when the men entered a rough neighborhood.
"We were going from the airport to the hotel, and we drove through what looked like a rougher neighborhood.
"Trump made a comment to me, saying that only the blacks could live like this," according to Cohen.
Former White House aide and "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault-Newman claimed on MSNBC's "Hardball" while promoting her book this year that she heard Trump using a racial slur on a tape regarding Kwame Jackson.
The astonishing allegations, to which the White House has yet to respond, are the latest episode in Cohen turning on his one-time master.
He told Vanity Fair he was clearing his conscience after years of being at Trump's side.
Cohen has previously spoken about his father being a Holocaust survivor, and he linked that to his decision to level such specific - and potentially explosive - charges at the president.
The attorney - who has pleaded guilty to felony federal charges which will almost inevitably send him to prison - claimed that in hindsight he wishes he had left Trump's organization when his boss used racist terms.
Instead he said, he was numb to the language and forgave Trump.
Longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen recounted a series of racist and offensive comments he claims his former boss made. Photo / AP
He claimed that he had thought that being president would change Trump - instead, he said, it has made the language and tone worse.
Trump turned on Cohen this summer as it became clear that the longtime loyalist was considering a plea deal or cooperating with prosecutors.
Trump tweeted in August: "If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!"
Trump also went after Cohen in July after the emergence of a tape of the two men discussing a payment to a woman claiming to have an affair with Trump.
"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?" Trump said.
Cohen revealed the anecdotes as he jumped into the Florida governor's race, tweeting out support for the Democrat in his latest move to put distance between himself and his former boss.
Cohen, who recently registered as a Democrat and who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of campaign finance and tax violations, twice retweeted Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.
Gillum would be the first black governor in the state's history if he defeats Trump-hugging Republican Ron DeSantis.
In one tweet, Cohen simply retweeted Gillum, who wrote: "I believe that we will win — but only if we vote."
In another, Cohen, using the same Twitter account he used to use to praise Trump and skewer his opponents, wrote: "GetOutAndVote."
President Trump has called Gillum a "stone cold thief," in a remark critics immediately called racist. Trump also called Tallahassee, where Gillum is mayor, one of the nation's "worst run cities."
Trump didn't back up the "thief" claim, but he may have been referring to an FBI probe of Florida politicians. Gillum is not a target of the probe but was revealed to have accepted "Hamilton" tickets from an undercover FBI agent conducting a sting operation, text messages obtained by a state ethics commission revealed.
Voter turnout is critical in Tuesday's elections, where Democrats hold a polling edge, but where their own base of supporters is known to turn out in far less force than those backing Republicans.
For example, in a new Washington Post poll of battleground House districts, Democrats hold a 58 to 37 edge among younger voters under 39 – but they turn out in lower percentages than older voters. Many students also run into voter registration issues if they are living away from home.
Likewise, Democrats hold a huge 66 to 26 edge among minorities. But whites prefer Republicans in the battleground districts by 51 to 47 per cent.
Cohen told CNN earlier this month that if people should vote against Trump, otherwise there would be two to six more years of "craziness."
"Listen, here's my recommendation. Grab your family, grab your friends, grab your neighbors, and get to the polls, because if not, you are going to have another two or another six years of this craziness," he said, in remarks he tweeted.
Cohen also tweeted last month that the mid-terms "might be the most important vote in our lifetime".
Cohen during his guilty plea said he was "directed" to violate campaign finance laws. He arrange a non-disclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleges she had a sexual affair with Trump. As part of the deal, she got a $130,000 payment that Cohen paid from a home equity line, but later got reimbursed by the Trump Organization.
Trump has denied the affair and tried to distance himself from Cohen. The president strongly backs Gillum's opponent, DeSantis, and travels to Pensacola Saturday night in an effort to boost his candidacy, along with that of Florida Senate candidate Gov. Rick Scott.
Cohen served as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) during 2016, when he was a close Trump confidante. But he gave up the post following his indictment.
The fresh racism allegations come after an explosive week of claims Trump has stirred up racial tensions.
On Friday he said he was right to link a caravan of migrants to a brutal killer in a video that's been characterized as "racist" and compared to the Willie Horton ad that haunts former President George H.W. Bush's campaign.
Trump told the Washington Times that the video he shared featuring a convicted cop killer and illegal immigrant named Luis Bracamontes, is not at all like the one that Bush supporters ran in 1988 against Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis.
"I don't view it as the Willie Horton ad at all," the president told The Washington Times on Thursday. "I think it's just an ad where somebody is a bad guy, came in illegally, twice, and we can't do that."
Like Horton, a convicted murderer who raped a white woman after he was furloughed from prison in Massachusetts, Bracamontes was let loose in America after run-ins with the law. He was deported twice - once under the Bill Clinton administration, and one under that of George W. Bush - before he committed the murders.
Horton was an African-American. Bracamontes is Hispanic.
Bracamontes grinned and swore his way through his trial and sentencing this year, vowing to escape and kill more police officers.
He screamed "F*** you, judge!" during a late January hearing and was banned from attending the rest of his trial in person, watching the remaining days on video monitors.
Trump's 55.5 million Twitter followers saw his own take on the case this week, a recap of the trial's most shocking moments titled: "Illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes killed our people!"
CNN host Don Lemon, under fire for declaring that "white men" are the greatest threat to the United States, complained Wednesday night during his show about "how the ad depicts Latinos and immigrants generally. Why is this blatantly racist ad his closing argument before the midterms?"
April Ryan, a CNN contributor and a White House correspondent for a network of black radio stations, claimed Trump was playing to a "base that he understands has a certain kind of feeling or misconception or perception, whatever, about minorities – particularly right now Mexicans or those who are coming from the southern border."
Cohen also referenced a conversation he says he had with Trump after Nelson Mandela's death in which he said black leadership led to countries being "s***holes". Photo / Getty Images
CNN host Chris Cuomo described the ad as "Willie Horton redux," a reference to the famous campaign ad that helped sink Dukakis.
Dukakis had supported a prison weekend furlough program that allowed Horton, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, to become a participant. Instead of returning to prison, Horton escaped and raped a woman the next year, stabbing her fiance in the process.
"This may be the most desperate and vile ad since Willie Horton," Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted Wednesday.
The video's footage includes the killer Bracamontes telling Judge Steve White: "They're f***ing dead. I don't f***ing regret that s**t. ... I will break out soon and I will kill more."
Over pounding percussion, the video's graphics proclaim: "DEMOCRATS LET HIM INTO OUR COUNTRY."
Bracamontes stunned the jury in his case by admitting his guilt as a prosecutor described the crime scene, declaring: "Only thing I f***ing regret is that I f***ing just killed two. I wish I f***ing killed more of those motherf***ers."
That moment, too, is in the video on Trump's Twitter feed.
And the words on the screen continue: "DEMOCRATS LET HIM STAY."
Trump featured Bracamontes in an ad nine months ago, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of his inauguration.
"Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants," said the ad, which argued for his long-promised border wall.
The new effort, though, connects the condemned man to the thousands of people streaming slowly on foot toward Texas and California
Scenes from the northward-advancing caravans show hundreds of Hondurans and Guatemalans streaming past video cameras and breaking down border-fences on their way into Mexico.
One migrant, interviewed late last week by a Fox News Channel reporter, is seen admitting that he was deported fom the U.S. after a conviction for "Intento de matar" – attempted murder.
"WHO ELSE WOULD DEMOCRATS LET IN?" reads the video's final caption, before claiming that Trump and the GOP are "Making America Safe Again."
The digital ad includes no information identifying who created or paid for it, meaning it's not officially a Trump campaign ad or a Republican Party product.
But the ease with which video can be attached to tweets means the President of the United States can circulate practically anything without acknowledging its source.
Bracamontes killed Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Detective Michael Davis Jr. in 2014 while he was high on meth.
A third victim, Anthony Holmes, was shot five times but survived.
When Judge White read his guilty verdict, Bracamontes smirked and softly said, "Yay," before warning that he would "kill more cops soon."
"It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country," Trump tweeted Wednesday along with the video. "Vote Republican now!"
