Steve Bannon: Trump adviser Gary Cohn should have resigned over Charlottesville comments

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon isn't mincing words now that he's left the administration. On his list: to make sure everyone knows he thinks President Trump's chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, should have left his post after disagreeing with the president's Charlottesville statements.

"When you side with a man, you side with him," Bannon told 60 Minutes in an interview excerpt released Thursday. "... You can tell him, 'Hey, maybe you can do it a better way.' But if you're gonna break, then resign. If you're going to break with him, resign. The stuff that was leaked out that week by certain members of the White House, I thought was unacceptable."

Bannon then specifically singled out Cohn. Cohn, who is Jewish, reportedly drafted a resignation letter after Trump doubled down on comments that left-wing counter-groups were just as violent as white supremacists and white nationalists during August protests in Charlottesville, Va.

Bannon, who clashed with Cohn during his time in the administration, told 60 Minutes that Cohn "absolutely" should have resigned.

"I'm talking obviously about Gary Cohn and some other people," Bannon said. "That if you don't like what he's doing and you don't agree with it, you have an obligation to resign."

The White House has said that Cohn hasn't held back about making his distress over Trump's Charlottesville response known. In an August interview with the Financial Times, Cohn said, "I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities."

Still, in that same interview, Cohn insisted he wouldn't leave his job as head of the National Economic Council.

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