The dust is still settling on Michael Cohen's testimony about President Trump on Wednesday, but some consensus is emerging among Democrats: that newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have asked the sharpest questions of all, ones that might lead to specific new lines of inquiry into Trump's finances. The details:
- The video: Watch the exchange between AOC and Cohen via PBS News Hour.
- Fact-checker's view: Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's Fact Checker columnist, sums things up in a tweet: "Some lessons that other lawmakers could learn from @AOC's good questioning of Cohen: a) follow-up on previously asked questions that still need answers b) be precise and detailed and c) avoid much grandstanding. You might elicit news." Colleague Aaron Blake of the Post writes that her "simple but effective" questions "actually unearthed new information."
- 3 names: At one point, AOC asked, "Did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?" Cohen said yes. "Who else knows the president did this?" she asked, to which Cohen listed three members of the Trump Organization, "Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman, and Matthew Calamari." And just like that, her question gave House investigators and federal prosecutors "yet another trail to chase," writes Jonathan Swan at Axios.