Dem Sen Coons: I Remember Cohn-Trump Call With Democrats ‘A Little Differently’ Than Carper

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf,” Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) reacted to fellow Senator Tom Carper’s (D-DE) claim that White House Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad phone connection to get the president off the phone in a meeting with Democratic senators by saying he has a slightly different recollection of the call, and that while “it was a challenge” to “transition” the president off of the call, he doesn’t think Cohn hung up on the president “abruptly” or handled the situation inappropriately.

Coons said, “Well, Jim, there were a dozen Democratic senators, who came in good faith to have a conversation with Gary Cohn and Marc Short about how we might find a bipartisan path forward on tax reform. I appreciated that the president took the time to call in to our meeting. And I’ll say it’s accurate that the president talked a great deal, and there were a number of us who had suggestions we wanted to make about ways we could move towards a bipartisan path on tax reform.”

Later, host Jim Sciutto asked Coons, “Did Gary Cohn, in that meeting with Democratic senators, discussing [the] tax reform bill, did he fake a bad connection to get the president off the phone?”

Coons answered, “Well, I remember it a little differently. It was a long call. It was clear that there was some eagerness in the room for us to resume our conversation. We heard a lot from the president. I do remember Senator Carper making that suggestion. I don’t think Gary Cohn abruptly hung up on the president, but it was a challenge to transition him off the call. And I think Gary Cohn handled it appropriately.”

(h/t Grabien)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett