Michael Cohen mocks Republicans for 2022 loss and predicts they'll foolishly continue to run to Trump for help
Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen penned an op-ed on Sunday predicting that Republicans will continue to dig their own grave after experiencing a flaccid 2022 midterm election.
"While Democrats deserve credit for a campaign well run, this extraordinary and unexpected outcome is the direct result of a Republican Party that embraces extreme, deeply unpopular views — and is led by an extreme, deeply unpopular former president," Cohen explained.
Cohen spent many years working for Donald Trump and watching his obsession with his own celebrity and financial gain. After the election, Trump's star dulled.
Cohen used the New Hampshire Senate race as his example of the perfect Trump failure. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) was considered one of the most endangered Democratic incumbents. Gov. Chris Sununu wouldn't run against her, though, leading to retired Gen. Don Bolduc. After being endorsed by Trump he struggled on whether or not he actually wanted to embrace it. Then he went full conspiracy theory, buying into Trump-loving pundits spreading lies like children using litter boxes and identifying as cats. He lost by nine points.
"Hassan’s experience was hardly unusual. Like a lot of Democrats this cycle, she avoided her toughest possible opponent and instead faced off against a weaker one, endorsed and promoted by Trump," said Cohen.
He went on to cite Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick, who "barely lost the Republican nomination to Dr. Mehmet Oz." He credits the Trump endorsement and rally with the likely GOP primary win. But as he went up against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Oz struggled to win people over. Even after Fetterman had a stroke and was forced to come off the trail for recovery, Oz still couldn't make it.
He called Herschel Walker, Blake Masters, Adam Laxalt, all extremists with no cross-party appeal.
"Nowhere was this more true than in Nevada," said Cohen. "On the surface, Laxalt might have seemed like a milquetoast, establishment Republican. But with Trump’s backing, he adopted a similar uncompromising personae. He embraced Trump’s 2020 election lie. He went out of his way to tell voters that he had no interest in working across the aisle with 'the radical, leftist Democrat Party' and promised investigations of Hunter Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci."
They all adopted similar campaign ideals.
"They all appeared to forget that once their Republican primaries were over they needed to appeal to non-Republican voters," said Cohen. Typically candidates have to appeal to their base to win primary elections and then pivot to appeal to the general election. It has become more so among Republican candidates over the years.
Still, Trump had some successes, like JD Vance in Ohio and Ted Budd in North Carolina. Both ran in red sates where the Democratic Party didn't even take an interest much less lift a finger.
"And in the case of Vance, he was such a weak candidate that Republicans dumped millions of dollars into the race propping up his faltering campaign. That was money that clearly could have been better spent elsewhere," said Cohen.
In the case of Budd, no Democrat should have been competitive at all in such a red state, and yet, Cheri Beasley was a competitive candidate.
"The only exception was Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, who unlike the aforementioned candidates, had already won two elections in Wisconsin and was blessed with a weak and under-funded opponent in Mandela Barnes," wrote Cohen.
In the end, Cohen explained that the lesson should be that "while Trump’s backing can help Republicans get over the finish line in red states he’s an albatross everywhere else."
Cohen also blames the Republican-appointed judges on the Supreme Court for pushing past public opinion to take away the rights of half of the population. For the first time, many Democrats finally started talking about the issue and didn't shy away from the debate. Both Nevada and Arizona had some of the most abortion ads run by Democrats in the country.
"The GOP has no one to blame but itself," said Cohen. "For years, they have embraced uncompromising and unpopular positions on abortion. They played to the radicalism of the anti-abortion movement, likely assuming that they would never face an election in which abortion rights were actually on the ballot."
He predicted a huge problem for Republicans going forward because Donald Trump isn't going to disappear. It's expected he will announce he's running on Nov. 15. Abortion issues are going to get even worse as more and more mothers face dangerous pregnancies and are forced to take drastic measures to save their own lives. More rape survivors will turn up pregnant and Republicans will continue their policy that rape survivors should be forced to carry a fetus whether she wants to or not.
"Election Day 2022 was a nightmare for the GOP… but more likely than not, it’s also a preview of what’s to come," Cohen closed.
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