You don’t hear a lot from Jared Kushner, senior advisor to President Donald J. Trump and also his son-in-law. Perhaps there’s a reason for that: Just about any time he speaks, he gets dunked on. Recently the husband of Ivanka Trump agreed to an interview for Axios on HBO, in which his attempts to disprove allegations that his boss and father-in-law is racist weren’t terrible convincing.
3. Here's a clip from @jonathanvswan's interview with Jared Kushner.
Jonathan mentions that @AOC calls the President a racist and then asks Kushner about Birtherism and the Muslim ban.
The entire interview is really good and I hope @HBOPR posts the entire interview on YouTube pic.twitter.com/lqnYnR0sC3
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 2, 2019
This clip, part of a longer interview that also didn’t go that well, found host Jonathan Swan asking him point blank direct questions, such as, “Have you ever seen [Trump] say or do anything that you would describe as racist or bigoted?”
“No, absolutely not,” Kushner replied. “You can’t not be a racist for 69 years and then run for president and be a racist.”
True, except Trump has been accused of racist acts going back to the 1970s, when he allegedly denied housing to black tenants. Brown didn’t bring that up, though. Instead, he went straight for his very public, very enthusiastic “birtherism,” in which he spent a long time trying to prove the man who would become his predecessor, Barack Obama, wasn’t born in America.
When Brown asked him if birtherism was itself racist, Kushner verbally squirmed, saying, “I wasn’t really involved in that,” and then offering repeated variations on the same.
Watching Brown grill Kushner was greatly enjoyed by certain factions of Twitter.
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1135352545063460866
.@jonathanvswan: Was birtherism racist?
Jared Kushner: I wasn't really involved in that
Swan: I know you weren't. Was it racist?
Kushner: Like I said, I wasn't involved in that
Swan: I know you weren't. Was it racist? pic.twitter.com/ZagOau7wDC— Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire (@WayTooEarly) June 3, 2019
Holy shit Jared Kushner is even more of an embarrassment than I thought. This clip is brutal. pic.twitter.com/yvxxNPc5J6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2019
The Axios interview of Jared Kushner outlined what we already knew:
-He’s a fraud.
-He stutters when defending racism.
-He stutters when defending bigotry.
-His Middle East Peace plan is fake.
-He’s completely disingenuous.
-He is heartless.All whilst selling intel to MBS.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) June 3, 2019
It's funny that there are still people who insist America is a meritocracy even though Jared Kushner exists
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/aliamjadrizvi/status/1135390589745340418
Jared Kushner has some of the most awful deflections (if you can even call them that) to some really basic questions. pic.twitter.com/T3gPCwoCSS
— FORE! Father (@ForeFather072) June 2, 2019
Speaking of Trump’s alleged racism:
https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1135382206619144193
Others simply made light of Kushner, perhaps in an attempt to distract themselves from the fact that he’s in such a high position of power.
https://twitter.com/AWolfeful/status/1135338063423401985
Jared Kushner could be intellectually outwitted by a day-old stromboli.
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) June 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/CoreyAtad/status/1135357260899790848
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1135358449020264449
A close second: Kushner using air quotes when he says “qualified.”
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 3, 2019
Jared Kushner is very, very bad at deflecting valid criticism.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 3, 2019
Others were busy casting the inevitable Trump White House movie.
Watching the @axios interview with Jared Kushner. My three takeaways:
1) @jonathanvswan does a fantastic job of interviewing him;
2) Patrick Wilson should play Kushner in the movie;
3) Kushner might be the emptiest shell in the history of the White House.— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 3, 2019
Kushner also said other things, including defending the administration’s treatment of refugees and questioning whether Palestinians could govern themselves. Those were also not met kindly.
Jared Kushner, the grandson of refugees who fled to America to escape the Holocaust, defended Trump's decision to slash the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. in an interview with "Axios on HBO." https://t.co/5b57S7jNya
— Axios (@axios) June 3, 2019
Saudi Arabia murdered and dismembered a Washington Post journalist and Jared Kushner, who has access to all of our national security secrets, is communicating with MBS over WhatsApp. The US has been compromised. https://t.co/GjGenqSJwK
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) June 3, 2019
In an interview with Jared Kushner, @jonathanvswan brings up Saudi Crown Prince MBS and says
1. He orders the murder of a WaPo journalist
2. Kidnaps the Lebanese Prime Minister
3. He indiscriminately bombs civilians in Yemen
Then he asks, "What do you see in this guy?" pic.twitter.com/Bw9pO93Xhh
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 31, 2019
Jared Kushner’s interview was pathetic. It’s clear he’s absolutely heartless. He’s naive and has no clue what he’s doing. He defended the Saudi Crown Prince’s assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He refused to call on the Saudis to return his body. Awful.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1135349624649240576