American journalism's most prominent Iranian apologist writes:

It’s one thing to steal an election, another to steal it with the effrontery and ruthlessness apparent here in recent days.

Translation: It's one thing to offer a ludicrous defense of a regime that's deeply hostile to human rights, individual liberty, the rule of law, and your own government, but quite another to defend such a regime only to have it go and embarrass you by brazenly stealing an election. Cohen's position would have been so much more tenable if only the Iranians had stolen the election properly.