Tag: Jared Kushner

‘Profound ignorance’: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace explains why Jared and Ivanka are ‘the rot’ inside the White House

Jared Kushner gave a disastrous interview to Axios’ Jonathan Swan as shown in the second season premiere of the outlet’s HBO series, which was released over the weekend. And the president’s son-in-law and top advisers is now getting appropriately raked over the coals.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace tore into Kushner on Monday during a panel discussion on her show “Deadline: White House.” She zeroed in on Kushner and Ivanka as two of the major deleterious forces within the administration.

She noted how Kushner “drove Rex Tillerson out of the administration. He repelled top-tier talent for the chief of staff job. It would seem to be that if there’s rot in this White House, the malignancy is Jared and Ivanka.”

View the complete June 3 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Jared Kushner doesn’t know whether he’ll alert the FBI if Russian officials offer political help in 2020

Jared Kushner was among the Trump campaign officials who was present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 9, 2016, which was also attended by Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya (Trump’s campaign had been promised some dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton by people in the Russian government). Journalist Jonathan Swan, during an interview with the White House senior adviser three years later for “Axios on HBO,” brought up that meeting — and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law was unsure whether or not he would notify the FBI if the same thing happened again.

Swan noted that three years ago, Kushner received an e-mail explaining that people in the Russian government wanted to help the Trump campaign. “Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call the FBI?,” Swan asked.

Kushner became testy, responding, “Jonathan, we’re in a place now where people are playing Monday morning quarterback, and they’re being so self-righteous. Let me put you in my shoes at that time. I’m running three companies, I’m helping run the campaign.”

View the complete June 3 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Exclusive: Jared Kushner on MBS, refugees, racism and Trump’s legacy

Discussing the horrific death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in an interview with “Axios on HBO,” White House adviser Jared Kushner was noncommittal on whether Saudi Crown Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) must account for Khashoggi’s body.

Kushner said he’s still waiting for results of a U.S. investigation to assign blame, even though the CIA reportedly determined with a high degree of confidence that MBS ordered the murder, and the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that he was responsible.

Why it matters: Kushner, who shares the president’s view that Saudi Arabia is a crucial partner to counter Iran, has formed a close relationship with MBS and helped promote him as a great reformer. We see here that even eight months after Khashoggi’s death in a Saudi consulate, the White House still refuses to publicly hold the Saudi leader accountable.

View the complete June 2 article by Jonathan Swan on the Axios website here.

Israel headed for new elections after Netanyahu fails to form coalition

(NOTE:  We usually don’t post international articles, but where Donald Trump and Jared Kushner have strong personal relationships with Mr. Netanyahu, and had been active in his re-election campaign, we felt it would be important to post.)

Less than two months after his biggest-ever electoral victory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed in a desperate bid to form a new government. The Knesset has now voted to hold a new election on Sept. 17.

Why it matters: This is a huge political defeat for Netanyahu. It’s the first time since the founding of Israel that a prime minister has missed the deadline to form a coalition after winning an election. Netanyahu opted for new elections before Israel’s president offered one of Netanyahu’s political rivals an opportunity to form a government.

Context: New elections will prevent Netanyahu from passing laws giving himself immunity from three pending indictments for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

  • Netanyahu’s plans to pass legislation allowing politicians to override Supreme Court rulings will also be hampered.

View the complete May 29 article from Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News on the Axios website here.

Deutsche Bank Staff Saw Suspicious Activity in Trump and Kushner Accounts

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.

The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.

But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice. The reports were never filed with the government.

View the complete May 19 article by David Enrich on The New York Times website here.

Trump‘s latest immigration plan came with no Democratic outreach

Proposal appears going no further than White House Rose Garden

President Donald Trump unveiled his latest immigration overhaul plan Thursday, but given its lack of outreach to Democrats, it likely will go little further than the Rose Garden setting where it first saw light.

Trump used the White House backdrop to also reiterate some of his familiar hard-line immigration stances that may ingratiate him to his conservative base, but usually only repel Democrats and many independents.

“Democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages, and frankly, lawless chaos,” the self-described “America first” president said, adding: “We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

View the complete May 16 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Trump rolls out ‘pro-American’ immigration plan

President Trump on Thursday rolled out a new immigration plan that would move the U.S. toward a “merit-based” system favoring highly skilled workers over migrants with family members living here, saying it would make the nation “the envy of the world.”

But the president made it clear he views the plan, which has little chance of passing Congress, as a political cudgel against Democrats as much as a serious legislative proposal.

“Today we are presenting a clear contrast,” Trump said during a speech in the Rose Garden of the White House. “Democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages and, frankly, lawless chaos. We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

View the complete May 16 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Still no public timeline for Jared Kushner immigration plan

Presidential son-in-law briefed Senate GOP on details Tuesday

When White House senior adviser Jared Kushner came to visit Senate Republicans on Tuesday to reportedly discuss an immigration overhaul he is developing, he did not have a full plan ready to go for solving what his own party says is a crisis.

Multiple Republican senators said there was no evidence that the Trump administration has set a timeline for a public rollout, but Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, did present some ideas that were new to many members of the conference.

Georgia Sen. David Perdue said Kushner is developing a plan that draws in part on merit-based migration legislation the senator crafted with fellow Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

View the complete May 14 article by Niels Lesniewski on The Roll Call website here.

GOP lawmakers mock Jared Kushner behind his back — and don’t take his ‘laughably simplistic’ ideas seriously: report

According to a report in Politico, presidential adviser Jared Kushner has asserted himself in the White House even more since the departure of former Chief of Staff John Kelly — and the results have not been good.

In an overview on President Donald Trump’s son-in-law taking on two monumental tasks — immigration reform and solving Middle East tensions — the report notes that Kushner appears to believe that he is being successful while lawmakers admit there is little progress.

In meetings with administration officials and lawmakers looking for direction from the White House, Kushner’s presentations are described as “simplistic” to Politico’s Eliana Johnson.

View the complete May 13 article by Tom Boggioni of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

House panel moves to hold former White House official in contempt after he obeys Trump administration’s instruction not to testify

The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House personnel security director in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would consult with the House counsel and members of the panel about scheduling a vote on contempt for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline. At the instruction of the White House, Kline failed to show up for scheduled testimony on security clearances.

The move marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House, which is increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill.

“The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Cummings said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight.”

View the complete April 23 article by Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.