We won't know it's a pivot point until after the tipping point is realized, but Gary Cohn certaininly doesn’t care all that much anymore, as there were qualified denials coming from those who talked to Woodward.
The chapter with Cohn trying with frustration to explain the US evolution to a service economy demonstrates how even more stupid Trump is about his coal jobs, “I’ve had these views for thirty years”. Even further revealing is the feud between Cohn and Peter Navarro turning Rob Porter into the WH’s quasi-czar on trade, subsequently contriving the current destructive tariff ‘policy’.
More interesting is Chis Christie denouncing Steve Bannon… again. He probably got to that point in Woodward’s book where Bannon wanted to call Christie a “fat fuck” and “throw down” in the middle of a Trump Tower hallway. Funnier is that fight between Bannon and Ivanka where Bannon calls her a “staffer” and Ivanka declares herself “First Daughter”.
Gary Cohn, former White House economic adviser to President Trump, is taking on Bob Woodward's "Fear" with a statement calling it inaccurate — but is declining to say what specifically Woodward has gotten wrong.
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."
www.axios.com/...
"In reporter Bob Woodward's new book... ex-economic adviser... Gary Cohn is reported to have been baffled by Trump's failure to grasp the principles of government fiscal & budgetary policy.“What do you mean? ... Just run the presses — print money..."
Of course, that the 45th president of the United States is an idiot is not exactly a new revelation. (Cohn has not publicly commented on any of Woodward’s reporting.) His first secretary of state characterized him as a “moron.” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, according to Woodward, told close associates that the president “had the understanding of ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’ ” Scott Pruitt essentially called him an imbecile “when it comes to things like the Constitution and rule of law.” Former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh reportedly said working with him was “like trying to figure out what a child wants,” which feels like an insult to children. And of course, someone “purporting to represent the views” of Cohn sent an e-mail in April 2017 describing the president as “an idiot surrounded by clowns.”
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The words that come out of his mouth and tweets that emerge from his fingers suggest all of these assessments are correct. Still, it’s nice to see Cohn—who also apparently prevented Trump from destroying two huge trade deals by simply removing documents from his desk, because the president never mastered a concept most babies learn before they turn one—fully unshackled.
www.vanityfair.com/...
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday accused Bob Woodward of acting as former White House adviser Steve Bannon’s “stenographer,” and said Woodward hadn’t performed “rudimentary journalistic fact checking.”
More interesting is how Papadopoulos tried to stay “loyal” throughout his role in #TrumpRussia, made more interesting by his wife’s attempt to shift disinformation toward Western intel agencies despite the obvious Mifsud Russian ties.
Mr Mifsud appears not to have been seen since he made those comments, even by Italian prosecutors attempting to track him down over an unrelated court summons in Italy.
His Ukrainian fiancée, who reportedly gave birth to his daughter earlier this year, has also said she has not seen him in months.
As well as offering emails, Mr Mifsud also introduced 31-year-old Papadopoulos to a woman named Olga, who claimed to be a niece of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and a man named Ivan Timofeev, who claimed to have a connection to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prosecutors said Papadopoulos’s false statements to the FBI contributed to their inability to secure an interview with the professor.
“The defendant’s lies undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States,” they wrote in court papers, noting Mr Mifsud left the US in February 2017 and has not returned.
www.independent.co.uk/...