Michael Cohen is no stranger to making the media rounds denouncing former President Donald Trump and speaking candidly about his time working for the embattled politician as his longtime attorney and “fixer.” But he was left stumped Friday morning interviewing with CNN’s Erica Hill when asked what it is about the man that continues to pull people in — and at one time, pulled him in, too.
“I don’t really have a good enough answer to give to you that would satisfy anyone, myself, or even my family that still asks me the same question,” Cohen admitted.
The interview, airing on “CNN This Morning,” ran the gamut of hot-button Trump topics, including the twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president’s reasoning for keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago estate. Cohen also offered Carlos de Oliveira, the newly named defendant in that case led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, some advice on how to navigate the coming months.
But anchor Hill wrapped her time with Cohen by asking how, per his own estimation, Trump “continues to bring people into his orbit and to gather that loyalty.”
“What is it?” she asked. “What do you think he’s promising people?”
“Yeah, look. It’s not as devious as you might think. The man is a cult leader, plain and simple, and he has managed, you know, to indoctrinate into this cult,” Cohen said. “Many millions of people, many millions of Americans who are parting with their hard-earned dollars to give it to a billionaire so he can fix an old 757 or to pay for his own legal fees or his own responsibilities. Why do we do it? Why I did it? I don’t have a — I don’t really have a good enough answer to give to you that would satisfy anyone, myself, or even my family that still asks me the same question.”
Cohen added that the former president’s ability to “indoctrinate” isn’t just a reflection of his character, but the character of those who are choosing to follow him.
“There’s something — there’s something about ourselves that we were following that I can’t explain. It’s something that you would probably need a cult expert, you know, to explain on what is it that they say and what is it that they do and what we’re missing ourselves that cause us to stay in this cult.”
Watch the full CNN segment, which features post-interview analysis from the “CNN This Morning” panel, in the video above.
