Michael Cohen (CSPAN)

Like millions of Americans, I sat transfixed to former Trump goon Michael Cohen’s testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee yesterday. The one lasting message from the hearing is Republicans will forgive President Donald Trump for anything. Racism, tax and bank fraud, witness intimidation, paying off mistresses — it’s all no big deal to them. They are no longer the Republican Party, they’re the Trump party. And more so, they’re no longer acting in the best interests of the country.

Cohen kicked off the hearing by declaring Trump was a “racist, conman and a cheat.” And these accusations are 100 percent true. Trump has a long history of racist comments and actions, including being sued by the Department of Justice in the 1970s for refusing to rent property to black people.

He also called for the execution of the Central Park Five, a group of black and Latino youth, who were accused of raping a jogger. Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad to support this, and even when the boys were exonerated by DNA evidence and awarded million-dollar settlements, he still insisted they were guilty. Trump’s $25 million settlement to victims of his fake university and his record of refusing to pay contractors are proof of his history of fraud.

Cohen dropped so many bombshells yesterday it was difficult to keep track. But here are some important issues he raised:

Cohen said he had threatened people on behalf of the president more than 500 times. Again, there are multiple confirmations of this. Like Scientologists, Trump uses lawsuits, or the threat of them, to bully people into silence. When the Daily Beast was doing a story about Trump’s marital rape allegations, Cohen called a reporter and told him: “I’m warning you, tread very f**king lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f**king disgusting.” Cohen also said Trump, who questioned President Barack Obama’s academic record, had contacted all of his former schools and threatened them with legal action if they released his academic records. This was confirmed by Fordham University.

Cohen also produced a cheque written by Trump to cover the cost of silencing porn star Stormy Daniels. This check was signed in 2017 when Trump was president, even though he was supposed to have relinquished control of his businesses.

Rep. Mark Meadows responded to Cohen’s accusations of Trump’s racism by trotting out Lynn Patton a former Trump employee who now has a high-level position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Her previous job was party planner! Patton just stood there and didn’t say anything. Meadows exploded when Rep. Rashida Tlaib said using Patton as a prop was racist. But Meadows was a birther and once urged voters to send Obama back to “Kenya, or wherever.”

But in spite of all Cohen’s damning evidence, Republicans still have their heads firmly in the sand. On the Bizzaro News Channel, otherwise known as FOX News, Lou Dobbs was mad at Democrats for embarrassing the nation with the hearing!

Republicans, like Dobbs, are trying to gaslight the whole nation. They’re trying to get us to ignore what’s happening right before our eyes. They want us to ignore the fact that Trump is a pathological liar, a racist and criminal who uses mob tactics. GOPers want us to ignore the fact that Trump’s behavior is not normal and ultimately a threat to the nation.

“They (Democrats) should be ashamed and everyone who voted for every one of those ignorant fools ought to say I’m sorry to the nation,” said Dobbs.

Republicans, like Dobbs, are trying to gaslight the whole nation. They’re trying to get us to ignore what’s happening right before our eyes. They want us to ignore the fact that Trump is a pathological liar, a racist and criminal who uses mob tactics. GOPers want us to ignore the fact that Trump’s behavior is not normal and ultimately a threat to the nation.

What happens if Trump orders the CIA or the FBI to spy on citizens? What happens if he orders the IRS to target his enemies or if he orders soldiers to gun down Americans? None of these scenarios if beyond the realm of possibility. And judging from yesterday’s hearing, Republicans will probably act like it never happened or say it’s no big deal.

Americans ought to be scared because allowing Trump to behave as if he’s above the law is the road to tyranny. At the end of the hearing, Rep. Elijah Cummings, chair of the House Oversight Committee, warned the country was heading into dangerous territory.

“When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked, ‘In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?’ ” he said. In a TV interview, Cummings later said Trump had committed a criminal act.

This situation reminds me of a scenario in the first season of “Game of Thrones.” Protagonist Ned Stark is visited in his jail cell by Lord Varys, the mysterious spymaster, when the kingdom is on the brink of civil war. Stark asks Varys, who does he stand for? Varys replies, “I stand for the Crown (government.)” Now we have to ask “Who do Republicans stand for?”