Jared Kushner is very good at making news. The bad kind. For the Trump White House, that is.
In a video interview with Time magazine released Tuesday, Kushner, the presidential son-in-law and jack of all trades at the White House, was asked whether there was any scenario he could imagine where the November 3 election would be postponed.
“That’s too far in the future to tell,” Kushner responded. “Nothing that I’m aware of now, but again, our focus right now is just on getting the country –.” Pressed on the matter, Kushner added this:
“It’s not my decision to make, so I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other. But right now, that’s the plan and again, hopefully, by the time we get to September, October, November, we’ve done enough work with testing and with all the different things we’re trying to do to prevent a future outbreak of the magnitude that would make us shut down again. I really believe that once America opens up, it’ll be very hard for America to ever lock down again.”
Which, of course, is not “No, the election is going to be on November 3.”
And which meant, of course, Kushner needed to issue a correction clarification – and quickly. “I have not been involved in, nor am I aware of any discussions about trying to change the date of the presidential election,” he said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Clean up on Aisle Kushner!
Here’s the thing: Jared Kushner is getting very good at this by now. Because, well, he just keeps saying the wrong things. Let’s take a jog down memory lane, shall we?
* “We’re on the other side of the medical aspect of this,” Kushner said in late April of the coronavirus pandemic. “We’ve achieved all the different milestones that are needed. The federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story.” At that point, more than 60,000 Americans had died from the disease. As of today, more than 82,000 people have died, with one influential model suggesting that number could reach 147,000 by early August.
* Asked earlier in April why medical supplies from the federal stockpile weren’t being distributed to states that needed them, Kushner responded: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be state’s stockpiles that they then use.” “Our stockpile,” eh? The language on the Strategic National Stockpile website made clear that “when state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.” In a plot right out of “1984,” the language was changed following Kushner’s “our stockpile” claim.
* Amid nearly nationwide stay-at-home orders Jared and his wife Ivanka Trump (and their three children) traveled from Washington, DC, to a Trump property in New Jersey to celebrate the first night of Passover. (Earlier in the day, before heading to New Jersey, Ivanka had tweeted: “Tonight we gather for a Passover without precedent. The group might be smaller, and the answer to ‘why is this night different’ might be unusual. But all across the world we shall sing our songs of freedom and together celebrate renewal.”)
As it relates to the idea of postponing the election, the key point here is that no one in the White House has the ability to do so. The date of the general election is governed by federal statute. This one, in particular:
“The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.”
Which means that the only way it can be changed is by Congress. And there’s NO way that a Democratic-controlled House is going to do that. No. Way.
So, it’s a moot point what Kushner thinks about the date of the general election. He has absolutely no say in it. Which is why he shouldn’t have engaged in even the most remote speculation about whether the date might change. It won’t.
How will this latest gaffe impact Kushner’s standing with Trump? If past is prologue, not at all!
Following his comments about the “great success story” of coronavirus, Trump called Kushner a “genius.”
Which, well, OK.
Trump has always relied on family – and family alone – to guide his professional and political choices. Which means that no matter how many times Kushner puts his foot in his mouth, he’s not likely to lose his prized perch at the right hand of the father-in-law.
