2020: Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren Fundraise off Michael Cohen Testimony

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Chip Somodevilla, Mario Tama/Getty Images

Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are attempting to fundraise for their 2020 presidential campaigns off former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s testimony before House investigators Wednesday.

“Under oath and in an open session of Congress, one of Donald Trump’s most trusted advisors implicated him in criminal activity while he been in the White House,” an email sent by Warren’s campaign reads before asking for campaign contributions.

Harris’s campaign manager Juan Rodriguez wrote to the California Democrat’s supporters that there’s a lot to “unpack” regarding Cohen’s testimony and protecting special counsel Robert Mueller’s from being terminated by President Trump before concluding his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is a must.

“But that’s not enough,” Rodriguez continues. “Since Trump was elected, public trust in our democracy and institutions has been completely decimated. He has proven to be a threat to the very foundation of our country. If we’re going to correct course and get back on the right track, we need to fight like hell to elect a President who will speak truth.”

The email then goes on to say that Harris’s campaign is behind on its fundraising goal for February and will be “forced to re-think where we place our resources” if it falls short.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress, testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday that President Trump had advance knowledge and embraced the news that emails damaging to Hillary Clinton would be released. But he also said he has no “direct evidence” that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

He gave lawmakers his first-person account of arranging hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had sex with the president. He testified that he was present for conversations in which Trump denigrated blacks as “too stupid” to vote for him. And he said he overheard longtime political operative Roger Stone telling the candidate that WikiLeaks would dump damaging information about Clinton.

Cohen also suggested that Trump implicitly told him to lie about a Moscow real estate project. Cohen has admitted lying about the project, which he says President Trump knew about as Cohen was negotiating with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Cohen said his former boss did not directly tell him to lie, but “he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and then go out and lie to the American people by saying the same thing.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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