Donald Trump’s former attorney and now courtroom adversary, Michael Cohen, argued on Tuesday that the former president will debate Vice President Kamala Harris next month because he fears being replaced by a cardboard cutout.
In a CNN interview with Jim Acosta, Cohen discussed Trump’s recent hints that he might skip the September 10 presidential debate, citing unfounded allegations of political bias by ABC News. “It’s all a figment of his imagination, which is getting more and more weird each and every day,” Cohen remarked. “But he’s going to end up showing up despite all of the nonsense.”
Cohen, who served time in prison for campaign finance violations linked to Trump and later became a key witness against him in a criminal hush money trial, suggested that Trump would likely use the debate to spout “ridiculous” falsehoods. He then revealed what he called Trump’s “tell.”
“When you see the accordion hands start going,” Cohen explained, “what that means is that he’s lying.” Cohen dismissed the idea that Trump would be prepared for the debate, especially given his lack of preparation, and echoed the Harris campaign’s assertion that the former president cannot be trusted with an unmuted microphone.
“He knows that she’s going to call him out on every single lie, on every single misstatement, and he just doesn’t know how to prepare,” Cohen said. “He knows he can’t control himself. He says things under his breath.”
Cohen predicted that Harris would have a successful debate and fare well in the upcoming election on November 5, dismissing Trump’s claim that Harris had somehow staged a coup to secure the nomination after President Joe Biden stepped down. “It’s not a coup, this is the way that politics works,” Cohen said bluntly. “He’s an idiot.”
According to Cohen, Harris’ path to victory could begin with Trump either appearing at the debate or, if he doesn’t show up, with the vice president bringing a life-sized cutout of the former president onto the debate stage. “He’s really stuck right now in a very weird situation,” Cohen remarked. “If he doesn’t show up, she’ll just put a cardboard cut-out of him in his spot and she will talk up to him as if he’s there.”