US Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) told CNN that White House's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn wanted to get off the phone with a long-winded Trump, so Cohn pretended to have a bad connection.
The white lie was Carper's idea, who was in a meeting about tax reform with Cohn, members of the administration, and moderate Democrats. He suggested Cohn first slather Trump with a compliment, then say buh-bye.
"I said, 'Gary, why don't you do this, just take the phone from, you know, your cell phone 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 said. "That's what he did, and he hung up, and then we went back to having the kind of conversation where we needed to, where they asked the right kind of questions, looking for consensus and common ground and I think we identified a little bit."
But someone in the meeting room (I have a hunch this someone is part of the administration) disagrees with Carper's account.
According to CNN:
A source in the room disputed Carper's recollection of the events, telling CNN that while Carper did say Cohn should "tell (Trump) he's brilliant and hang up," he did not suggest faking a bad connection. Cohn then walked away from the table while still talking on the phone and left the room, the source said.
Image: The White House
