A still from Where’s My Roy Cohn? by Matt Tyrnauer, an official selection of U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ap/REX/Shuttersock
An author and historian told MS NOW that the "scoundrel and sinner" who mentored President Donald Trump is still "haunting" the U.S., arguing that he represents the through-line from one of the country's worst moments to the present crisis.
Kai Bird appeared on the Tuesday edition of MS NOW's State of Play, promoting his new biography, American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump, detailing the life and influence of lawyer Roy Cohn. Cohn first rose to infamy by assisting Sen. Joseph McCarthy in carrying out his "Red Scare" witch hunt against alleged communists, and later became a key mentor to a young Donald Trump after becoming his lawyer, purportedly seeing potential in him decades prior to his becoming president.
"I like to quote H.L. Mencken, the political humorist who once said, 'what a dull world this place would be for us honest men if it were not for the sinners,'" Bird said. "And Roy Cohn was a sinner and a scoundrel who met Donald Trump in October of 1973, and he molded him into becoming, I would argue, the worst and also the most consequential president of recent decades."
Among the characteristics of Trump attributed to the influence of Cohn are his preference for loyalty above all else and his determination to never admit defeat under any circumstances.
"He taught him, as you listed his rules: Attack, attack, attack; Don't tell me what the law is, tell me who the judge is. You know his playbook is now Donald Trump's playbook," Bird added.
He argued later in the interview that the long shadow of Cohn over Trump has created a scenario in which rampant corruption is corroding the public's trust in democracy, making them more "cynical" in the face of a system that seems to have no rules. He also argued that Cohn represents a clear line connecting one of America's low points — the Red Scare — to the last decade of Trumpism, and it is a connection that must be reckoned with.
"At the time when I became a historian several decades ago, I studied the McCarthy era, and I thought this was a low point in our history, something that, however, we'd gotten past," Bird said. "But I no longer believe that. There were thousands of victims of mccarthyism in 1954, but there are many more thousands today. And we have another witch hunt. And there's a direct line between mccarthyism and the last decade of Trumpism, and the connection is Roy Cohn, and he's very much haunting us from his grave."
