Donald Trump's fixer-turned-courtroom foe argued Tuesday the former president will debate Vice President Kamala Harris next month because he fears a cardboard cutout.
Michael Cohen made this unique claim in a CNN interview with Jim Acosta as the pair discussed Trump's suggestion he might not attend the Sept. 10 presidential debate due to unsubstantiated claims of ABC News' political bias.
"It's all a figment of his imagination, which is getting more and more weird each and every day," Cohen said. "But he's going to end up showing up despite all of the nonsense."
Cohen, an attorney who served prison time on Trump-linked campaign finance charges and as a star witness in the former president's criminal hush money trial, warned his former boss would likely use the debate to make "ridiculous" falsehoods.
Then Cohen revealed what he described as Trump's "tell."
"When you see the accordion hands start going," Cohen said, "what that means is that he's lying."
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Cohen scoffed at the idea that Trump would be well positioned to debate — despite doing nothing to prepare — and echoed Harris campaign taunts that the former president could not be trusted with an unmuted mic.
"He knows that she's going to call him out on every single lie on every single misstatement, and he just doesn't know how to prepare," said Cohen. "He knows he can't control himself. He says things under his breath."
Cohen predicted a successful debate for Harris and a successful election on Nov. 5 scoffing at Trump's claim that she overthrew President Joe Biden to secure the nomination.
"It's not a coup, this is the way that the politics work," Cohen said. "He's an idiot."
Harris' road to victory will begin either with Trump appearing at the debate, or with the vice president dragging a life-sized cut-out of the former president onto the debate stage, Cohen argued.
"He's really stuck right now in a very weird situation," said Cohen. "If he doesn't show up, she'll just put a cardboard cut-out of him in his spot and she will talk up to him as if he's there."
