Because the defense is behind, Blanche had to come right out of the box swinging, and he did — but it was a swing and a miss as he asked Cohen his first question: “You went on TikTok and called me a ‘crying little s–t’, didn’t you?” Cohen, with a deadpan demeanor that I thought hid a twinkle in his eye, responded that the quote “sounds like something I would say,” eliciting a smile from even Blanche’s own co-counsel Susan Necheles.

But that has nothing to do with the underlying facts in this case, and neither did the question that followed about Cohen criticizing Necheles. Both drew objections that were sustained and triggered a bench conference with Judge Juan Merchan. While we won’t know what was said until we get the transcript, the judge appeared to rebuke Blanche and ordered the questions stricken.

That was not a good look for the jury to observe and, while Blanche could only go up from there, he continued to struggle a bit, drawing several objections that were sustained as he failed to rattle Cohen with questions about topics like his frequent media appearances despite the district attorney’s reservations (naughty, but so what?), his anti-Trump podcast (showing bias, but Cohen owned it) and even selling anti-Trump merchandise (showing financial motive, but again failing to get a rise out of Cohen).

Blanche eventually started to pick up a little steam when he contrasted how little Cohen remembers about his conversations with the DA’s office a year ago to his recollection of details about conversations with Trump back in 2016. He also got in some glancing blows on Cohen’s bias by eliciting various admissions about wanting Trump to be convicted, selling a T-shirt showing Trump in jail and the like. However, even when Blanche confronted Cohen with his most inflammatory social media comments, such as calling Trump a “dictator douchebag” and a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain,” Cohen was utterly unfazed.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen is in the courtroom for former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial and chronicling what he sees for this CNN Opinion series.