Today we are learning the new lengths to which House Republicans will go to block investigations into Donald Trump. This includes a non-committee Republican publicly threatening a star witness against Trump while wondering if the witness’ wife will "remain faithful when you're in prison," then slithering silently around the committee room the next day. It includes committee Republicans bringing visual aides calling Cohen a liar in large, bold letters.
But the morning's Republican contributions consisted of yelling. It was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings all over again, with damning testimony of criminal acts by Trump being met with INDIGNANT SHOUTING in proportion to the severity of the allegations. Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS, Rep. Mark Meadows, and Rep. Jim Jordan led a Republican campaign predicated on the notion that Michael Cohen cannot be trusted when he reveals crimes by Donald J. Trump, because Michael Cohen has already lied about committing crimes while working for Donald J. Trump. Rep. Gibbs appeared to be on the verge of tears as he described the shamefulness of Donald Trump being accused of things; Rep. Higgins claimed that he "didn't know" who Michael Cohen even was, "until today, really."
As ranking Republican and an expert in ignoring crimes taking place around him, it was Rep. Jim Jordan who was most frequently at the mic, and what we have learned about Jim Jordan over the years is that if Jim Jordan hears evidence of a crime being committed that might cause personal trouble for Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan will go to aggressive lengths to pretend he didn't hear it. It is his own personal superpower, brought to bear here in an effort to ignore, completely, the allegations against Donald Trump. Jim Jordan doesn't want to hear it—therefore it did not happen.
Trump remains accused, with evidence, of conspiring to violate election laws during his campaign with a hush money payment to a prior mistress. Cohen himself pleaded guilty to his part in enabling that very act. But there were few Republican questions about Trump's alleged criminal acts. As Democrats sought to clarify details of Cohen's opening statements, Republicans devoted their efforts almost entirely to discrediting Cohen as a witness, often in confusing ways, and to insisting that the hearing itself was meant only as effort to wound Dear Leader.
Few made any attempt, however, to refute any of the documents or specific allegations Cohen brought against Trump, to the alarm of some Republican pundits.
Again, it is a demonstration of how far Republicanism has moved toward becoming little more than an organized crime ring, an organization bent on protecting its own members' criminal acts while dealing maximum retribution to those that would oppose them. Trump stands accused at this point of a litany of federal and state crimes; the uniform Republican response is that the true supposed danger to American law and order is efforts to so much as investigate those acts.