Gary Cohn Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis November 22, 2017

In a bipartisan phone call with Senators earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor lied about a bad connection to get Trump to stop talking, a Democratic senator who was on the call told CNN.

Democratic Senator Tom Carper said that he and others were speaking with Cohn about the Republican-backed tax reform bill when Trump dialed into the call. Carper said that Trump filibustered for fifteen minutes, at which point Carper suggested that Cohn fake a bad connection. Cohn, according to Carper, took his advice.

“I said to Gary… Gary, why don’t you do this, why don’t you do this, why don’t you take the phone… and just say, ‘Mr. President, you’re brilliant, but we’re losing contact and I think we’re going to lose you now, so goodbye.’ And that’s what he did, and he hung up,” Carper said.

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CNN’s host, incredulous, asked if Carper was really saying that Cohn had lied to the president to get him off the phone.

“I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but yes,” Carper said.

“I think you just did,” the other host said.

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

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

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