Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Democratic Sen. Tom Carper said Wednesday on CNN that White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn recently faked a poor connection to get President Trump off the phone. The Delaware senator said the president called from Asia while Cohn, other economic advisers, and moderate Democratic lawmakers were discussing tax reform. “Fifteen minutes later, the president is still talking. I said to Gary—it was a room where we’re all sitting around this big square table, and 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. “And that’s what he did and he hung up. And we went back to having the kind of conversation that we needed to, where they ask a question, looking for consensus and common ground and I think we identified a little bit.” The White House later disputed Carper's account, and said in a statement that Cohn “left the room and continued to speak with the President privately for several minutes before they concluded the call,” CNN reported.