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Not that you asked, but my two bits about today's hearing: The missed opportunity was to develop through Q & A with Cohen a detailed sense of how Trump does business— and the use of deception, mob boss behavior and shamelessness therein. For these now characterize the presidency.
Psychologically, this was the highlight. "I did the same thing that you're doing now. For ten years. I protected Mr. Trump for ten years... The more people that follow Mr. Trump -- as I did blindly -- are going to suffer the same consequences that I'm suffering."
Novelistically, the "material" is how Cohen represented the Republicans on the committee, despite their lurid attacks. He had been where they are now. He is now where they will yet be. They are fanatics. But as Le Carré said, "the fanatic is always a concealing a secret doubt."
I thought it was a genius move by @AOC to subvert an expectation that journalists may or may not have known they had: that hers would be a star turn, a continuation of her 'bad guy' ethics seminar. She went the other way. Detailed, workmanlike, following up on others' questions.
A thing I paid attention to in the commentary by journalists during and after is the subtle difference between assessments of Cohen's "credibility," which speculates on how he would appear to other people, and statements in which the journalist essentially said, "I believed him."
First through the lens of the president's legal troubles is how Cohen's testimony has been seen by journalists. That's the base line. But in a way the bigger story of the hearing is that both parties now see the president as a cheat, a liar, a cad— a man of decrepit character.
