Members of the press praised freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., this week for how she questioned former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen Wednesday.
Cohen appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday to testify after being sentenced to three years for lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws. Ocasio-Cortez is one of the Democrats on the committee who questioned Cohen, and she won rave reviews from members of the press for how she asked her questions.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane lauded her questioning as the “very best” and said other lawmakers should “watch and learn.”
“Here’s clip of @AOC questioning, which was among the very best, drawing out information & possible further investigative leads. Others should watch & learn from her, from veteran Rs to freshman Ds (including some of her own friends/allies),” Kane tweeted Wednesday.
Here’s clip of @AOC questioning, which was among the very best, drawing out information & possible further investigative leads. Others should watch & learn from her, from veteran Rs to freshman Ds (including some of her own friends/allies).https://t.co/X0OLEziwnF
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) February 27, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez focused her questions on whether Trump ever inflated the value of his assets to an insurance company and whether he tried to undervalue those assets to reduce his tax bill. An MSNBC analyst said her interrogation of Cohen was better than almost everyone else’s effort.
“.@AOC just got there and she is asking better questions than 90% of members. Short, specific, factual, with no speechmaking. (Maybe it’s because she just got there.)” he tweeted.
.@AOC just got there and she is asking better questions than 90% of members. Short, specific, factual, with no speechmaking. (Maybe it’s because she just got there.)
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) February 27, 2019
Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society, wrote an op-ed that appeared the New York Times Thursday that outlined how she believes Ocasio-Cortez “won the Cohen hearing.”
“[Her questions were] well thought out. Like a good prosecutor, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was establishing the factual basis for further committee investigation,” Fredrickson wrote. “She asked one question at a time, avoided long-winded speeches on why she was asking the question, and listened carefully to his answer, which gave her the basis for a follow-up inquiry.”
CNN political commentator David Axelrod linked to Fredrickson’s piece in a tweet where he praised Ocasio-Cortez for producing “real news.”
“I agree with this. @AOC asked incisive questions of Cohen on the tax and legal implications of how Trump values his properties. Real news,” Axelrod tweeted.
I agree with this. @AOC asked incisive questions of Cohen on the tax and legal implications of how Trump values his properties. Real news.https://t.co/XcCUW7bfPG
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 28, 2019
The Huffington Post called Ocasio-Cortez’s questioning “masterful.”
“The freshman New York congresswoman ‘expertly laid a trap’ to get President Donald Trump’s tax returns, and ‘won’ the Cohen hearing, according to two raving press accounts,” the Huffington Post reported.
A reporter with HuffPost said that Ocasio-Cortez “made it look easy.”
New: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) made it look easy, but staff worked with her for days to prepare her questions for Michael Cohen. @paulblu and I spoke to @AOC’s staff about her now-viral examination: https://t.co/RY4OnnSvQ6
— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) March 1, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez has entered Congress as a trailblazer and has drawn a lot of attention ever since winning in an upset primary challenge in 2018 that took out 10-term incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley.
