President Donald Trump’s contempt for former President Barack Obama ― shown in a long history of scorn from the racist birther conspiracy theory to the false allegations of campaign spying ― is “purely racial,” according to Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, speaking on Monday’s broadcast of “The View” on ABC, said Trump was never able “to really fully grasp how the country ended up voting for the very first Black president.”
“Why he despises him to the extent that he does, I believe it’s purely racial,” Cohen said, adding: “I believe it’s solely predicated on the fact that Barack Obama is Black.” Cohen also pointed to Trump’s own insecurities about his education and the fact that Obama was Harvard-educated. (Trump reportedly cheated his way into Penn and refuses to release his academic records.)
Cohen revealed in his new book “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” that Trump, before becoming president, hired an Obama impersonator to belittle and then fire him on camera.
Trump also said Hispanics “like the Blacks ... are too stupid to vote for Trump” and suggested South Africa should have remained under white rule because Nelson Mandela had “ruined” the country.
Cohen is currently serving a three-year sentence (now at home because of the coronavirus pandemic) for violating campaign finance laws and lying to Congress about the Russia investigation.
The White House has dismissed the claims in the tell-all book.
Check out Cohen’s comments here: