Speaking before Congress last week, Cohen said he deeply regretted keeping the truth about Stormy Daniels from the first lady

On Monday morning First Lady Melania Trump embarked on a three-state tour to promote her “Be Best” campaign on children’s welfare, which is her signature work inside the White House.

One thing she did not want to talk about?

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A very public apology about Stormy Daniels made to her by President Donald Trump‘s former attorney Michael Cohen during marathon Congressional testimony last week.

Melania, 48, ignored a question from reporters traveling with her on her tour as she prepared to fly out from Washington, D.C. A member of the press pool had asked if she would accept Cohen’s contrition.

On Wednesday, Cohen, 52, testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee that he had been instructed by the president to lie to the first lady about the president’s affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels alleges she and the president had sex beginning in 2006, a year after he married Melania. He has vigorously denied any affair.

Speaking before Congress last week, Cohen said he deeply regretted keeping the truth from Melania.

“He [Trump] asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did,” he said, adding, “Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly — and she did not deserve that.”

During his half-day of testimony, Cohen described a litany of unethical, unscrupulous, startling and in some cases illegal behavior by the president, whom he labeled a “cheat,” “conman” and “racist.”

Republicans on the House committee, however, sharply criticized Cohen’s character and credibility. Last year Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations connected to a hush-money payment he made to Daniels and said he acted at the behest of Trump, who later reimbursed him.

“He will say whatever he wants to accomplish his own personal goals,” Rep. Mark Green, of Tennessee, said of Cohen. “He’s a fake witness and his presence here is a travesty.”

RELATED VIDEO: Michael Cohen Slams Trump in First Post-Sentencing Interview — ‘The Man Doesn’t Tell the Truth’

In a Wednesday statement, the president’s re-election campaign dismissed Cohen as “a felon, a disbarred lawyer, and a convicted perjurer, who lied to both Congress and the Special Counsel in a ‘deliberate and premeditated’ fashion according to the Special Counsel’s Office.”

“Now he offers what he says is evidence, but the only support for that is his own testimony, which has proven before to be worthless,” the statement continued.

The first lady has yet to publicly address the allegations that her husband had an affair with Daniels but told ABC News last year that broader scrutiny of her marriage didn’t faze her.

“It is not a concern and focus of mine,” she said. “I’m a mother and a first lady and I have much more important things to think about and to do. I know people like to speculate and the media like to speculate about our marriage.”

Melania’s “Be Best” initiative, while broadly labeled an anti-bullying campaign, also focuses on opioid abuse and children’s well-being (such as healthier habits and emphasizing positive values like kindness) — all to “promote established organizations, programs, and people who are helping children overcome some of the issues they face growing up in the modern world.”

The first lady’s two-day trip this week will take her to an elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then to a Seattle technology company, among other stops. She will also attend a town hall in Las Vegas.

In her previous travels since her husband took office, Melania has visited Cairo; Nairobi, Kenya; Lilongwe, Malawi; and elsewhere.

“Being a parent is her first priority, she has always, always said that,” the first lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said on CNN on Sunday. “And her son is at an age right now where these kinds of issues, especially with social media, are becoming prevalent and important to her. So it’s important to her that she too is educating herself so that she can do the very, very best for her son. But also she knows as first lady she’s got a responsibility and she wants to do everything she can to help all the children in our country.”

Melania has been accused of hypocrisy — or naivete — for calling for kinder social media habits given the president’s love of personally insulting his opponents on Twitter.

Melania has framed the issue differently, telling ABC in October she was one of the most bullied people in the world and connected personally with her campaign.

Speaking with CNN, Grisham said the president’s tweets were a separate issue from the first lady’s work.