Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon believes White House economic adviser Gary Cohn should have stepped down from his administration post after criticizing President Trump’s handling of the deadly Charlottesville, Va., protest in August.
“Absolutely,” Bannon told CBS in an interview that aired Thursday when asked if Cohn should have left.
Steve Bannon on Gary Cohn:”If you don’t like what he’s doing and you don’t agree with it, you have an obligation to resign.” @60Minutes pic.twitter.com/0NkeFWnDb5— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) September 7, 2017
Two weeks ago, Cohn said he faced “enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in” his current position.
“As a patriotic American, I am reluctant to leave my post. … But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks. … Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn said in August.
“As a Jewish American, I will not allow neo-Nazis ranting ‘Jews will not replace us’ to cause this Jew to leave his job,” Cohn added. “I feel deep empathy for all who have been targeted by these hate groups. We must all unite against them.”
The White House aide did not leave his job, but called on the administration to do more to condemn the white supremacist groups that organized a rally Aug. 12 in support of a Confederate statue.
But Bannon said that sort of talk from a current White House aide should not have been tolerated. “The stuff that was leaked out that week by certain members of the White House was unacceptable,” Bannon told CBS.
“After the Charlottesville situation, I was the only guy that came out and tried to defend him. I was the only guy that said, ‘He’s talking about something — taking it up to a higher level.’ Where did this all go? Where does it end? Does it end in taking down the Washington Monument?” Bannon added.
Bannon left the White House last month to return to leading Breitbart News. He has promised to help the Trump administration from the outside.
