Michael Cohen claimed that President Donald Trump used racist language in several private conversations with him during the time he worked as Trump’s personal lawyer and “fixer.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair that published Friday, Cohen recalled four times that Trump made denigrating comments to him about black people.
CNN has confirmed from a source close to Cohen that the Vanity Fair story and quotes are accurate. The White House did not respond to Vanity Fair’s multiple requests for comment. CNN has also reached out to the White House for comment.
Cohen alleged that Trump made a disparaging comment about African-American voters when they were discussing the turnout for one of his 2016 campaign rallies.
“I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television. Trump responded, ‘That’s because black people are too stupid to vote for me,’ ” the President’s former lawyer told the magazine.
Cohen claimed that when South African leader Nelson Mandela died, Trump remarked, “‘Name one country run by a black person that’s not a s***hole,’ and then he added, ‘Name one city.'”
He said that when he and Trump were traveling to Chicago in the late 2000s, “we were going from the airport to the hotel, and we drove through what looked like a rougher neighborhood.” Read more