Gary Cohn Reportedly Used the 'Oh Shit, Bad Reception' Trick to Get Trump Off The Phone

A U.S. Senator suggested on Wednesday that at least some of Donald Trump’s aides can, in fact, relate to normal humans, telling CNN that top economic adviser Gary Cohn faked a bad connection to end a phone call with the president.

Sen. Tom Carper said Trump called Cohn as White House advisers were meeting with Democratic lawmakers about tax reform. The senator from Delaware then suggested that Cohn, like so many of us who’ve tried to avoid bosses, telemarketers, and insurance companies, agreed to pretend that he wasn’t getting good reception to cut off Trump’s rambling (emphasis mine):

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.’ 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.

CNN’s John Berman followed up with Carper to clarify that Cohn had actually deployed the age-old tactic of ending annoying phone calls.

“Well, I wouldn’t — I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but yes,” Carper responded.

CNN’s Berman and Poppy Harlow were shocked, shocked I tell you:

The White House strongly denied Carper’s story, calling it “completely false.” Watch the full clip below and decide for yourself: