A Democratic senator claimed on Wednesday that Gary Cohn, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, faked a bad cell phone connection as an excuse to hang up on the president during tax reform negotiations.
Tom Carper of Delaware told CNN that he suggested the tactic when a long-winded Donald Trump called in to a November 7 meeting between Senate Democrats and senior White House aides while he was traveling in Asia.
‘I said to Gary – it was a room where we’re all sitting around this big table – and I said, “Gary, why don’t you do this, just take the phone from, you know, your cellphone back and just say, ‘Mr. President, you’re brilliant, but we’re losing contact and I think we’re going to lose you now, so good-bye’,”‘ Carper claimed.
‘And that’s what he did and he hung up.’
Sen. Tom Carper, Delaware Democrat, claims the White House’s Gary Cohn faked a bad connection with Trump to get rid of him during a call from Asia that interrupted tax reform negotiations
Cohn, shown at right with Trump during a Nov. 16 Capitol Hill visit, leads the White House’s National Economic Council
The senator told the story to The Hill the day after the meeting, and joked about his recommendation, but didn’t claim Cohn took him up on it.
Trump ‘was ready to talk – and talk, and talk,’ Carper recalled at the time, ‘and finally, I don’t know, after about 15 minutes or so I turned to Gary Cohn and I said, “Gary, you know, we’re not going to have a chance to have a real conversation here. And can’t you just tell the president that he’s brilliant, and say ‘We’re losing you! We’re losing the connection!’ and then hang up?’
The White House fired back shortly after he told an expanded version of the tale on CNN.
‘Senator Carper’s claim is completely false,’ said White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah.
‘Gary Cohn took the phone off speaker and continued to speak with the president privately for several minutes before they concluded the call.’
Carper told the story differently two weeks ago, never saying Cohn pretended he couldn’t hear the president
Trump has promised to deliver a tax cut victory in Congress by the end of the year
Democratic Sen. Tom Carper says White House economic adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad connection to get President Trump off the phone so they could have a conversation on tax reform without him https://t.co/qcUnSEsysl
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 22, 2017
But Carper’s memory is different, recalling a back-and-forth discussion that could have yielded compromise if Trump hadn’t stepped in the middle.
‘We went back to having the kind of conversation where we needed to, where they ask questions, looking for consensus, looking for common ground, and I think we identified some of that,’ he said.
A CNN host asked Carper if he could say for sure that Cohn pretended he couldn’t hear Trump in order to get rid of him.
‘Well I wouldn’t – I don’t want to throw him under the bus – but yes,’ he replied with a grin.
The president has predicted that he will deliver a Senate victory to lower Americans’ taxes by the end of this year.
It would be Trump’s first major legislative milestone, after Republican Sen. John McCain torpedoed his Obamacare repealk measure at the last minute.
Most of the public comments the president has made about the tax negotiations have focused on Democrats’ unwillingness to lower business rates.
He has called them ‘obstructionists’ multiple times.