White House senior adviser Jared Kushner sat for a palpably uncomfortable exchange with Axios‘ Jonathan Swan — which aired on HBO Sunday — and was asked to answer for one of President Trump’s most condemned crusades: birtherism.
Kushner initially places the blame on Democrats when asked about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s stance that Trump is a racist.
“You can’t not be a racist for 69 years, then run for president and be a racist,” he said. “And what I’ll say is that when a lot of the Democrats call the President a racist, I think they’re doing a disservice to people who suffer because of real racism in this country.”
Swan then asked Kushner whether birtherism — Trump’s very public offensive against President Barack Obama’s citizenship — was racist.
“Um, look, I wasn’t really involved in that,” Kushner said.
“I know you weren’t. Was it racist?” Swan pressed.
“Like I said, I wasn’t involved in that,” he said. Swan asked again: “I know you weren’t. Was it racist?”
“Look, I know who the President is and I have not seen anything in him that is racist, so again I was not involved in that,” he said. Kushner gave the same “I was not involved in that” retort when asked whether he wished Trump “didn’t do that.”
“That was a long time ago,” Kushner said.
Watch the exchange below:
“Um, look, I wasn’t really involved in that,” Kushner said.
“I know you weren’t. Was it racist?” Swan pressed.
“Like I said, I wasn’t involved in that,” he said. Swan asked again: “I know you weren’t. Was it racist?”
What a lovely couple!
The fact that he didn’t just say “No it wasn’t” is very telling.
“You can’t not be a racist for 69 years, then run for president and be a racist,” he said.
Why not and why not?
“And what I’ll say is that when a lot of the Democrats call the President a racist, I think they’re doing a disservice to people who suffer because of real racism in this country.”
How so?
I can’t remember seeing that before - exhibit almost no body language clues (posture stays cool as a cucumber) while the facial expressions makes squirming so very apparent.
Each time he says “I wasn’t involved in that” he seems to expect that magic phrase will definitively be taken as the answer. But its not. Good on Swan to keep asking - and keep evoking the Kushner grimace.
That was indeed cringey. But even more significant was Kushner’s response, “I don’t know” when asked if he would tell the FBI if the Russians request another meeting.