Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's lawyer, repeatedly asked CNN "says who?" when an anchor said Trump was down. | Getty Trump lawyer on polls showing him losing: 'Says who?'

Asked about Donald Trump’s decision to hire a pair of new senior campaign officials amid his growing polling deficit, the Manhattan billionaire’s attorney’s incredulous response was “says who?”

In an interview on Wednesday afternoon, substitute CNN host Brianna Keilar asked Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen about the hiring of campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and CEO Stephen Bannon, widely perceived as a shakeup intended to remedy the Republican nominee’s struggling campaign.


Cohen balked at the idea that the hires constituted any kind of shakeup and interrupted Keilar in the middle of a follow-up question when she said, “You say it is not a shakeup but you guys are down.”

“Says who?” said Cohen, whose job description also includes serving as Trump’s special counsel.

“Polls. Most of them. All of them?” an incredulous Keilar responded, sounding surprised that Cohen would refuse to even acknowledge the notion that Trump’s campaign had fallen behind that of Hillary Clinton.

“Says who?” Cohen asked again, to which Keilar replied, “Polls. I just told you. I answered your question.”

Unsatisfied, Cohen followed up: “OK, which polls?”

“All of them,” the CNN host said.

“OK,” Cohen said. “And your question is?”

With the back-and-forth finished, Keilar asked what the hiring of Conway and Bannon signified if not a campaign shakeup.

“I think bringing on someone like Kellyanne Conway was a great move, and it was something, personally, I would have liked to see happen earlier,” Cohen said. “But the campaign wasn’t ready for it. Now they are. I think she is a brilliant individual. I think that she understands the data that’s coming in.”