Trump blames Cohen hearing for North Korea summit failure

President Trump on Sunday linked Michael Cohen’s hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee to the collapse of his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week.

The Cohen hearing and Trump’s summit with Kim were held nearly simultaneously, with Cohen’s hearing beginning a few hours after Trump met Kim in Hanoi.

{mosads}Trump and Kim got together again hours after Cohen’s all-day affair, which was covered live by most of the cable news networks. But the summit ended early after Kim demanded the U.S. lift all sanctions on his country without North Korea completely ending its nuclear program.

Trump said the timing of the Cohen hearing was a “new low” in politics.

“For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!” Trump tweeted.

For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019

Cohen at the hearing accused the president of lying to the public about hush money payments, said he had heard Trump use racist language and called Trump a “con man.” He said he had routinely bullied people at Trump’s request. 

Republicans during the hearing ripped into Cohen as a liar, noting he had already pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. 

Cohen was sentenced to prison last year on a range of charges. He’s set to testify again this week behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee. He sentence will begin on May 6.

Trump entered negotiations with Kim hoping to secure a formal end to the Korean War and North Korea’s denuclearization, but the talks reached an impasse.

The president told reporters following the summit that the U.S. was not willing to fully lift sanctions in exchange for partial denuclearization, stating that “sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times.”

A North Korean official disputed that characterization of the country’s position adding that Kim “may have lost the will” to engage in future negotiations.

“This proposal was the biggest denuclearization measure we could take at the present stage in relations to [the] current level of confidence between the DPRK and the United States,” North Korea’s foreign minister said.