Reuters
President Donald Trump holds a news conference next to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Thursday.
President Donald Trump bashed Michael Cohen a day after his former lawyer told Congress the president was a “con man,” as he left Hanoi without an agreement with North Korea’s leader.
CRITICISM — AND SOME PRAISE — FOR COHEN
Trump said Cohen — who testified Wednesday before a House committee — had “lied a lot” to lawmakers, but added he was pleased with one part of the testimony, which he said he “tried to watch as much as I could.”
“It was very interesting because he didn’t lie about one thing,” Trump said at a news conference in Vietnam following his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. “He said no collusion with the Russia hoax.”
In his daylong testimony, Cohen said he didn’t have direct evidence that Trump colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign, but that he had “suspicions.” Trump’s former lawyer, meanwhile, revealed a new probe of the president by prosecutors and hinted at other payments of hush money.
Trump told reporters Cohen’s testimony was “pretty shameful” but that his collusion comment redeemed him somewhat. “He only went about 95% instead of 100%.”
See: Cohen reveals new probe of Trump by prosecutors — and 6 other takeaways from his testimony.
KOREA DEAL SEEN ‘EVENTUALLY’
After failing to reach a deal to curb North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program at his second summit with Kim, Trump told reporters he was “never afraid to walk away from a deal.”
Yet the president didn’t rule out future talks, saying “eventually we’ll get there.”
Kim “has a certain vision and it’s not exactly our vision, but it’s a lot closer than it was a year ago,” Trump said. The talks broke down after the North Koreans demanded U.S. sanctions be lifted in their entirety, Trump told reporters. “We couldn’t do that,” he said. The president spoke with the leaders of Japan and South Korea about his meeting with Kim en route back to Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho later contradicted Trump, saying his country hadn’t sought the removal of all sanctions in exchange for dismantling the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Now see: Trump says talks with North Korea’s Kim broke down over lifting of sanctions.
U.S. stocks DJIA, -0.27% dipped after the talks broke down, but better-than-expected U.S. economic data helped to offset some of the pressure.
Now read: Stocks struggle after failed Trump-Kim summit; GDP data surprise on upside.
Trump also said he didn’t believe Kim was involved in the mistreatment of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died after being detained in North Korea. Kim “tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” said Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, called Trump’s statement “detestable,” while conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said it was “pathetic.”
Read: Trump says he’ll take Kim at his word that he played no role in death of detained American student Otto Warmbier.
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