President Trump accused former White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn of “treason” after he tried to resign following the president’s remarks about the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.
Cohn tried to resign from the administration after the president did not explicitly condemn the acts of white supremacists during the Charlottesville riots, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear: Trump in the White House.” The president rejected Cohn’s resignation, admonished him and said, “This is treason.”
Protesters met in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. The protests ended in dozens of injuries and one death, after a car driven by a white supremacist barreled into a during clashes between white supremacists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other groups. Trump’s immediate response in the wake of the protests was that he condemned violence on “many sides,” but failed to call out white supremacist groups. The president amended his comments the following afternoon by saying he thinks there was “blame on both sides.”
White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly told Cohn after he tried to resign: “If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.”
Cohn announced his resignation from the Trump administration in March, citing differences of opinion in regards to the administration’s insistence on imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
