Unless you were living under a rock Tuesday night you likely know about the release of the secret Cohen-Trump tape by CNN. Anyone that is anyone already has opined about the tape and whether it puts Donald Trump in criminal jeopardy. It likely doesn’t. But the tape offers many other details that further shows as a liar, and in my opinion, a danger to the country.

As with any tape that is clandestinely made, the quality leaves open questions as to the context and the meaning of the different parts of the conversation. I took the CNN tape and enhanced it so that we could see if we can better understand what was said by Trump.

Here is the enhanced (sweetened) version I made:

What I heard, and we’re all likely to hear different things, leads me to believe that contrary to Trump’s insistence of not having an affair with Karen McDougal and not knowing about the payment to her are lies.

This is what I heard.

  1. “So what are we going to pay?”
  2. “I’ve been thinking about that…”
  3. “Listen, what financing?”
  4. “So, I’ll pay with cash.”

Regardless of what anyone believes about the recording, the likely fact is that other recordings will soon follow. In addition, Michael Cohen has sent a clear message that he no longer protects Trump, and thus, he’ll likely be releasing more interesting tidbits in the coming days/weeks.

Martin Paredes

Martín Paredes is a Mexican immigrant who built his business on the U.S.-Mexican border. As an immigrant, Martín brings the perspective of someone who sees México as a native through the experience...