In this combination of images. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and President Donald Trump during their meeting Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (Evan Vucci / AP)

No matter how low your opinion may be of President Trump, he'll always find a way to lower it. On Wednesday, he outdid himself, breaking even the laws of physics by reaching new depths in two places at once. In Washington, Trump was revealed to be even more traitorous, venal and outright criminal than already assumed thanks to the congressional testimony of his long-time attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Just hours later, in Hanoi, Trump was forced to walk away from his latest love-fest summit with one of the world's bloodiest dictators, North Korea's Kim Jong Un. [...]

He confirmed that Trump heard from Roger Stone that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would release emails that would damage Hillary Clinton. Assange and WikiLeaks have been lockstep collaborators with Russian intelligence services for years and cannot be considered to act independently from Putin's wishes.

Additionally, Deutsche Bank lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars when no other institution would give him a dime. This is the same bank that was fined for laundering billions in Russian cash and was described by expert reporter Luke Harding as facilitating a "shuffle of money" between its business with Russians and its business with Trump. From Trump Tower to the hacked emails to the fishy loans to the polling data Manafort handed over to a Russian agent, the list of contacts and likely quid pro quos between Trump and Russia is long and growing. I believe the English term is "collusion."

Cohen's credibility was enhanced by his Republican interrogators, who debased themselves, their offices and Congress as an institution with their eagerness to attack one of the few people who can shed light on the threat Trump represents to the country. It is vital to understand what Putin extracted from Trump in exchange for keeping quiet about the Trump Tower arrangement and the Trumps' many lies about it. But it was clear from the start that the Republicans weren't interested in the truth, only in defending their Dear Leader.

They attempted to do this by calling Trump's right-hand man a liar and a crook, as if those characteristics aren't exactly why Trump relied on him for so many years. The GOP questioners didn't even try to exculpate Trump, conceding that his actions are indefensible so the only hope is discrediting the messenger. The GOP isn't angry with Cohen for lying to Congress in 2017 when he was doing it to defend Trump. They're angry that he stopped. [...]

Trump's wooing of murderous North Korean dictator would be inexcusable even if it achieved results. It hasn't. Instead, Kim has received the global elevation all dictators crave by being treated as an equal by the leader of the most powerful free country in the world and given up nothing he cares about. His country is still a concentration camp of 25 million souls, and he knows the only reason he is receiving first-class treatment is because of the nuclear weapons he will never relinquish.

Just as Russia loomed over the Cohen hearing, Putin's shadow was also present in Hanoi, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov appearing right on time to claim that the "Americans are seeking our advice" on the negotiations. To be fair, if Kim listens to anyone, it's likely Putin, who helped turn the North Korean missile program into a global threat in record time.