After a week of conspicuous radio silence, former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is finally rebutting several salacious claims included in Bob Woodward’s book “Fear”.
The book, which arrived on bookshelves Tuesday, purports to lay bare the chaos and dysfunction that engulfed the West Wing for much of President Trump’s first year in office. Cohn plays a prominent role in the book, and is the subject of some of its most astonishing allegations – including a dramatic opening scene where Cohn unilaterally removes documents from the president’s desk to avert what he reportedly believed would be a “national security” disaster (they mostly involved canceling trade agreements, a tack that Trump has continued on in Cohn’s absence).
However, Cohn’s denial leaves out some crucial details: Namely, he declined to specify which parts of Woodward’s account are untrue.
Here’s Axios:
What he’s saying: “This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House,” Cohn told Axios in a statement. “I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda.”
To be sure, Cohn’s reasoning for holding back is plainly obvious: After Woodward released a recording of a conversation with Trump, we imagine Cohn is wary of Woodward releasing excerpts from their taped conversations. We imagine Cohn and his crisis PR team have decided that it would be better not to kick that hornet’s nest. Woodward has said that the book is based on “hundreds of hours” of interview, most of which were purportedly taped.
Cohn is one of the more prominent figures in the book (perhaps because, after leaving the White House in early April, he was looking to do some badly needed venting).
Here’s Axios’ summary of the book’s most outlandish claims (in typical bullet-point format):
- The book has caused heartburn in the White House, with Trump trashing it repeatedly on Twitter.
- Trump has privately been angry at both Gary Cohn’s and Rob Porter’s starring roles in the book, which both Trump and White House officials viewed as evidence that they were major sources for the author.
- Woodward’s book opens with a dramatic scene in which Cohn sneaks into the Oval Office and removes from the President’s desk a one-page draft letter addressed to the South Korean president, terminating the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
- “I stole it off his desk,” Woodward quotes Cohn as later telling an associate. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”
To this, Axios adds that the “vast majority” of scenes described by Woodward reflect reporting from Axios’s reporters (reporting that, presumably, went unconfirmed).
According to the leaked excerpts, Cohn reportedly told the Watergate reporter that he surreptitiously removed copies of notices intended to rescind a US-South Korea trade agreement (and another document ordering the cancellation of Nafta) from the President Trump’s desk save the deals for reasons of “national security.”
Much to our chagrin, no prominent constitutional lawyers have weighed in to clarify whether removing documents from the president’s desk without his knowledge or approval would be tantamount to treason. Though we imagine Cohn would that he saved Korus for reasons of “national security” – turning the Trump administration’s favorite trade-war justification on its head. Trump’s aides reportedly feared that killing the trade deal would jeopardize US ABM batteries stationed in the South intended to keep North Korea in check.
Unfortunately, there’s still no word on whether Cohn has spoken with the president recently.
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