Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Gary Cohn Keeps Leaving The Room Whenever Anyone Mentions ‘Russia’

National Economic Council director Gary Cohn is so concerned about getting himself tied up in the probe of Russian involvement in the presidential election that he leaves the room whenever the subject of Russia comes up, Vanity Fair reported Wednesday.

After an indictment against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was revealed, “advisers in the West Wing are on edge and doing whatever they can not to be ensnared,” reporter Gabriel Sherman wrote.

White House employees think that “For the first time since the investigation began, the prospect of impeachment is being considered as a realistic outcome and not just a liberal fever dream,” he added.

Cohn’s position in the White House has been tenuous ever since he publicly censured President Trump for what Cohn saw as Trump’s inadequate response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, is no longer considered a candidate to chair the Federal Reserve, which he reportedly wanted.

Cohn admitted in September that he had stayed in the White House after Charlottesville because he was excited about the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to pursue tax reform. The bill was scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday but was delayed amid reports of Republican infighting about the plan’s particulars.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.