In an interview taped on April 18, Kush told well-known journalist Bob Woodward that he was “taking the country back from the doctors” in what Trump called a “negotiated settlement.” Kushner also announced that the U.S. The epidemic is rapidly advancing from the “panic phase” and the “pain phase” and the country was “the beginning of the recovery phase”.
“That doesn’t mean there’s still not much pain and no pain for a while, but it was basically, now we’ve put in place rules to get back to work,” Kushner said. “Trump is back in charge now. He’s not a doctor.”
The statement reflects the political strategy. Instead of following the advice of health experts, Trump and Kushner focused on what would help the president on election day. By his calculations, Trump will be the “open-up president”.
Kushner also rejected the party’s politics, calling the Republican Party a “collection of tribal crowds,” and the G.O.P. Describing the platform, “basically documents that people want to release.” Kushner went on to tell Woodward that he had a “complete unfavorable takeover” when Trump became the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
He also told Woodward that “the most dangerous people around the president are the more confident idiots” and that Trump replaced them with “more thoughtful people, like they know their place.”
Kushner’s comments on the administration’s management of the epidemic show the extent to which Trump and Kushner minimized the public health crisis, even though the eruption occurred last spring.
At the time, the U.S. In about 30,000 positive cases are routinely searched every day. On April 15, three days before Kushner’s interview, deaths from Covid-19 reached their all-time high of more than 2,600 per day. And hospitalizations for the virus began to reach around 60,000 in a few days in April. During this period, New York was still a victim of the virus, and fatal outbreaks in the South and Midwest had not yet occurred.
Kushner’s comments show that many health experts say he is at the center of the administration’s flawed approach to the epidemic – premature pressure to reopen the country and bring new infections to medical professionals this summer, and record cases due to this wicket. .
“It was almost like Trump would get the country back from the doctors. Right?” Kush told Woodward on April 18th. “Now in the sense of what it did, you know, it’s openly owned.”
The increase in cases has led to an increase in coronavirus deaths.
This month, 11 states reported the most one-day new deaths since the outbreak began. And while researchers are rushing toward the vaccine, it will be months before anyone is expected to be widely available, and health experts warn that people need to take the virus seriously in the meantime.
CNN’s medical analyst Dr. “If we continue our current behavior, by the time we start going down the other side of the curve, two million people will have died,” Jonathan Rainer said Tuesday.
Since the beginning of October, at least one new case record-day has been reported in 29 U.S. states, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Being a ‘cheerleader’ for the economy
Kushner also described the political calculations for Woodward for the presidency – instead of a federal plan to fight the virus, Trump placed that responsibility on governors. In his April 18 interview, Kushner described how he believed Trump aligned himself to reap the political benefits of successful control of the virus when state governors and the president were not sure he would be blamed for any failure to stop the spread.
The states should own the test, Kushner said. “The federal government should not own the test. And the federal government should not have the type of rules. It will be up to the governors, because that’s how the federalist system works.”
He went on to say: “But the president is also very politically savvy which he did to basically tell the governors that no, no, no, no, I own the opening. Because again, the opening will be very popular. Wants to open up the country. But if it opens up the wrong way, the question will be whether the governors have followed the guidelines we have set. “
In a second interview with Woodward on May 8, Kushner insisted that one of Trump’s tasks should be to be a “cheerleader” to boost the economy. Kushner referred to this as taking care of “market psychology”.
“So if you basically say this is coming back this fall, don’t quarrel, people won’t retire, people will be unemployed,” Kushner told Woodward. “And if you are thinking for the worst case scenario, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. One thing about the president is that he is a cheerleader. He is trying to make people feel good about the outcome.”
The president himself backed Kushner for speaking with Woodward for “Rage,” calling him “a smart cookie,” according to another audio Dio clip obtained by CNN.
“I told Jared to talk to you, and I believe he is,” Trump told Woodward on Feb. 19. Trump said he asked Kushner to coordinate with others in the administration so Bob could talk to whomever he wanted. Jared will handle. – Very capable person, Jared. You can’t get people like this. “
Activists and ‘over confident idiots’
Speaking to Woodward, Kushner also expressed contempt for the Republican Party and the G.O.P. No. The rebels praised her father-in-law.
On April 18, he said, “I would say he originally took a completely unfavorable takeover of the Republican Party.” And I don’t think that’s as much as the issues. I think it’s about attitude. “
Describing political parties as a “collection of tribals”, Kushner fired GOP activists who helped shape the party’s policy ideas and aspirations through regular voter contact.
“You know, the parties are more focused on being special than being content as they evolve,” Kushn mused. “And so, you know, on the Republican Party platform you see, it’s a document, like basically liberating people. It’s been done by activists.”
Months later, during its national session, the Republican Party refused to update its platform and opted to re-read the 2016 platform instead.
Kushner’s disregard also extended to those administrative officials and advisers who had previously disappointed the president during his tenure – people described Kushner as “over-confident stupidity.”
“We’ve got rid of a lot more trustworthy idiots,” he told Woodward. “And now he’s got a lot more thoughtful people who know his kind of place and know what to do.”
In “Rage,” Woodward writes that he believed Kushner was referring to former cabinet members and advisers James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, and Gary Cohen. In a September interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Kushner called Woodward “misbehaving” and denied that he called the three men “over-confident idiots.”
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