Cohn Says Trump Administration Must Do More to Condemn Hate Groups - Wall Street Journal

Cohn Says Trump Administration Must Do More to Condemn Hate Groups

White House economic policy director, who is Jewish, says he is ‘reluctant’ to leave his post despite outside pressure

By Nick Timiraos

Aug. 25, 2017 9:31 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Gary Cohn, the White House’s economic policy director, said the Trump administration must do more to condemn hate groups and he did not defend President Donald Trump’s response to violence at a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., two weeks ago.

Mr. Cohn said he had come under “enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in my current position” but that he was “reluctant” to leave his post out of a patriotic duty. He addressed the Charlottesville controversy in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

Mr. Trump faced an intense backlash, including criticism from members of his own party, for what elected officials and business leaders said was a failure to provide moral leadership. After two days of clashes that culminated with a driver mowing down a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman, Mr. Trump initially blamed violence “on many sides.”

A few days later the president more explicitly condemned extremist groups. Then next day, Mr. Cohn stood beside Mr. Trump at a news conference in New York in which Mr. Trump’s defense of his initial comments seemed to walk back the more explicit condemnation. At the news conference, Mr. Trump said there had been “very fine people on both sides” of the rally organized by white nationalists.

“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” said Mr. Cohn in the interview with the Financial Times. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”

Mr. Cohn said he had spoken several times with Mr. Trump on the matter. “I have not been bashful saying what I think,” he told the newspaper. The White House last week issued a statement denying rumors that Mr. Cohn would leave the administration over the president’s remarks.

Mr. Cohn, who is Jewish, said in the published interview he would not allow neo-Nazis chanting anti-Semitic slogans “to cause this Jew to leave his job.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is also Jewish and who also stood with Mr. Trump at his news conference last week, has also come under pressure from various groups to resign. Mr. Mnuchin on Saturday issued a long statement strongly defending Mr. Trump’s response and rejecting any calls to leave the administration.

In addition to handling Mr. Trump’s push for a comprehensive tax bill and an infrastructure-spending program, Mr. Cohn’s National Economic Council is managing the search for the next Federal Reserve chairman. Mr. Cohn is a leading candidate for the post.

Mr. Cohn told the newspaper Mr. Trump would next week become heavily involved in the public salesmanship of the administration’s push to cut individual and corporate tax rates. It isn’t clear if the administration will offer its own plan, however.

Mr. Cohn said House and Senate committees would be in charge of drafting legislation within the next month, and the administration hopes to pass a bill the president can sign this year.