Cohn reportedly considered resigning from the National Economic Council after the 2017 Charlottesville rally and criticized the Trump administration's response to the rally, stating "I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning," white supremacists. In August 2020, Jim Scuitto published a book called "The Madman Theory" in which Cohn said in response to Donald Trump saying that there were very good people on both sides of the protests which included white supremacists, "Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK."