White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn drafted his resignation letter in the aftermath of the tragic events in Charlottesville and President Donald Trump's responses to them, The New York Times reported Friday.
The news comes a day after the former Goldman Sachs executive publicly admonished Trump and the administration for its reticence to properly condemn white supremacists in the aftermath of Charlottesville.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, Cohn, who is Jewish, said he was "under enormous pressure" to both resign and stay on, choosing to stay on but saying Trump and the "administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning" hate groups.
Cohn's wife was one of those pressing him to consider resigning, the Times reported.
Cohn was in Trump Tower with the president when he doubled-down on his now infamous remarks equating the Charlottesville violence to "many sides," further saying there were "very fine people on both sides."
Cohn was disgusted and upset by Trump's remarks, the Times reported.
Cohn told the Financial Times that "he had not been bashful" in telling the president his feelings, saying he had "numerous private conversations" with Trump about it.
One of those came in a private meeting at the president's golf club in New Jersey last Friday, the Times reported, when Cohn was on the cusp of resigning.
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