Kushner insists today that there will be no hate element in the Trump Administration, starting at the top. “You can’t not be a racist for 69 years, then all of a sudden become a racist, right?” he says. “You can’t not be an anti-Semite for 69 years and all of a sudden become an anti-Semite because you’re running.”
His reaction to fringe elements, like the KKK and the white nationalist alt-right, who have embraced Trump? “Trump has disavowed their support 25 times. He’s renounced hatred, he’s renounced bigotry, and he’s renounced racism. I don’t know if he could ever denounce them enough for some people.” He then paraphrases a quote he attributes to Ronald Reagan: “Just because they support me doesn’t mean that I support them.”
Kushner’s support extends to Steve Bannon, Trump’s strategic advisor, who had been accused by his ex-wife of making anti-Semitic comments (he denies it) and whose website, Breitbart, has often published articles that dog-whistle racist, anti-Semitic sentiments. “Do you hold me accountable for every single thing that the Observer’ s ever written, like they came from me?” Kushner says. “All I know about Steve is my experience working with him. He’s an incredible Zionist and loves Israel. He was one of the leaders in the anti-divestiture campaign. And what I’ve seen from working together with him was somebody who did not fit the description that people are pushing on him. I choose to judge him based on my experience and seeing the job he’s done, as opposed to what other people are saying about him.”
EBL: The Borking of Steve Bannon
Don Surber: Lapsed Jew Lectures Observant Jew
Hot Air/Jazz Shaw: Media heading to the fainting couch again! and Hamas is now saying Trump “possibly” a Jew (YouTube took down the video for “copywrite” claims)
Instapundit: Wall Street Journal: Steve Bannon on Politics as War
Wombat: Powerline: The Trouble with Keith Ellison and Don Surber: How to talk at Thanksgiving this year
