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Trump blames Cohen hearing for failure of summit with Kim

Monday, 04 March 2019 4:49 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 March 2019 5:24 AM ]

US President Donald Trump leaves after a press conference following the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi on February 28, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump has laid the blame on Democrats for the collapse of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week.

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said the Democrats’ decision to question his longtime fixer, lawyer Michael Cohen may have contributed to the failure of the negotiations as the interview occurred simultaneously with the summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019

Following the summit on Thursday, Trump told reporters that "he had to walk away" from the talks because of Pyongyang’s demands to lift all economic sanctions as a prerequisite to denuclearization.

"Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, but we couldn't do that ... we had to walk away from it," Trump said.

His national security adviser John Bolton, however, projected a different view of the Hanoi meeting, calling it a success. Appearing in three television interviews on Sunday, Bolton said Trump had advanced US’ national security interests by rejecting a bad deal while working to convince Kim to take “the big deal that really could make a difference for North Korea.”

Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, saying that “the days of...protecting the president at all costs are over.”

PressTV-‘Days of protecting Trump are over’

President Donald Trump's longtime fixer Michael Cohen has spoken for the last time before heading to prison for a series of tax and campaign finance charges.

"I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat," Cohen said in his opening statement.

When Trump was asked about Cohen’s testimony on Thursday, he dismissed the allegations as “incorrect” and criticized the decision to have the hearing while he was away.

“I tried to watch as much as I could,” Trump said. “I wasn’t able to watch too much because I’ve been a little bit busy, but I think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing.”

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