Former President Donald Trump operative Michael Cohen said Tuesday he is continuing his “business as usual” by publicly questioning whether Republican candidates will take part in presidential debates.
“This is nothing new,” Cohen said in an interview with CNN, responding to Trump's recent comments about potentially participating in the debate.
“Donald's been using the same old strategy since 2015: He wants the debate to go in the direction he wants it to go,” he continued.
Doubts have been swirling in recent days about whether the ABC News presidential debate will go on as scheduled as campaigns reexamine rules that were put in place before President Biden took over as the top Democratic candidate.
Trump and his supporters have also slammed ABC News, which hosted the debate, labelling the media outlet “fake” and suggesting it was rigged against him. Trump has been clamoring for the debate to be hosted by Fox News.
Cohen said Trump was attacking ABC News because he “want[s]to control every outlet”.
“He can do that on Fox News,” Cohen said. “He can't do that on CNN. He can't do that on ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.”
“So of course he's going to claim there's bias against him,” Cohen said. “None of it is true. It's all a figment of his imagination, and it gets weirder by the day.”
Cohen predicted Trump would attend regardless of the host's network because he doesn't want to cede the stage to VP Harris, which would give her an additional platform to attack his Republican opponent.
“But he's going to end up being there no matter what nonsense he says because he knows what Kamala Harris will do if he doesn't,” he said. “She'll put a cutout of him on the spot and talk to him as if he was there.”
Cohen was the former president's longtime fixer and personal lawyer. He turned on his boss, pleading guilty to federal campaign finance violations and serving a three-year prison sentence. He claimed he committed some of the crimes at Trump's direction, and testified as a star witness in Trump's New York criminal trial, in which he was convicted.
In response to Cohen's comments, a Trump spokesperson told The Hill: Social Media PostsTrump said he had agreed to debate Harris on ABC News, in a post in which he called the network “ABC Fake News, by far the meanest and most unfair news anchor in the business.”
