Cohn says tax reform kept him at WH after Charlottesville

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn says he stayed at the White House even after President Trump’s controversial Charlottesville remarks because he wanted to participate in tax reform.

“Why am I here? I am here just for this reason,” Cohn said at a briefing on the reform plan.

President Trump ignited anger across the political spectrum with his response to a rally in Charlottesville, Va., last month held by neo-Nazis and members of the KKK. One young woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting the rally.

Cohn and other Jewish members of the Trump administration have been under fire for staying by the president’s side after the comments that laid blame at “both sides” of the rally and insisted that some of the white supremacist protesters were “very good people.”

{mosads}“Think about the opportunity that I’m involved in with President Trump, rewriting the tax code, something that hasn’t been done in 31 years. The amount of impact we can have on the US economy and US citizens and changing the forward outlook of the United States, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would never miss this,” Cohn said Thursday.

Asked if he would step down after the tax reform plan was passed, Cohn replied: “There are many more once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in the White House.”

Cohn reportedly fell out of Trump’s good graces for a period after speaking out publicly against the remarks, and telling the press that he was mulling resigning. 

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is also Jewish and came under fire for sticking by Trump following the Charlottesville remarks, defended the president.