Gary Cohn: ‘I haven’t made up my mind’ on vote for president in November

Gary Cohn, President Trump’s one-time economic adviser, told CNBC he has not yet made up his mind how he will vote in the November election.

“You know, I honestly haven’t made up my mind,” Cohn said Monday. “I’m really eager to see an economic debate between the two of them. I actually vote on issues.”

Cohn, a registered Democrat, criticized the president’s response to the 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. However, he did not resign until the next year, citing his disagreements with the president on proposed steel and aluminum tariffs.

Since leaving the White House, Cohn has been notably less critical of the president than other officials who have resigned, such as former Defense Secretary James Mattis, former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In January, he told CBS News that he was “leaving the door open” on his vote.

“I vote on a lot of the social issues, as well. So, you know, in many respects, I’ve got to balance both sides of that equation before I figure out who I’m going to vote for,” he said in January.

On CNBC, however, Cohn suggested economic concerns would drive his vote. “We have to have a plan to get back to a more normalized fiscal picture, once we normalize and we get back to a normal economy in the United States,” he said. “And I really do want to hear where the two candidates are. Just taxing to spend doesn’t make sense to me. We have to have a plan to get our fiscal house back in order.”

“The first set of [coronavirus] fiscal stimulus was a blunt instrument: We sort of spread it everywhere. Which at the time was the right thing to do,” he added.

“I think at this point we need a much more detailed, or scalpel-like approach,” he said. “And the place where we need it the most is in the small-business community.”