President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen spoke with Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox ahead of the midterm election to join the chorus of voices warning Americans about the president’s divisive and racist rhetoric.
With his close access to Trump, Cohen revealed multiple situations where he claimed Trump displayed racism against African Americans.
“[Cohen] knew that the president’s private comments were worse than his public rhetoric, and he wanted to offer potential voters what he believed was evidence of Trump’s character in advance of the midterm elections,” Fox wrote.
Once Cohen warned Trump about looking bad on TV, but he seemed not to care.
“I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television. Trump responded, ‘That’s because black people are too stupid to vote for me,’” Cohen told Fox.
He shared another story about how Trump referred to black people living in Chicago.
“We were going from the airport to the hotel, and we drove through what looked like a rougher neighborhood. Trump made a comment to me, saying that ‘only the blacks could live like this,’” Cohen said.
Even dating back to his Apprentice days, Trump said that there was “no way I can let this black f-g win.”
Cohen mentioned that he never stood up to Trump during these moments because he loved his job and thought the presidency would change him.
“I truly thought the office would change him,” he said. “But it hasn’t,” Cohen said.