In Election Hail Mary, Jared Kushner Tells Black People They’re Lazy and Unambitious

For anyone who’s not entirely up to speed on first son-in-law Jared Kushner’s backstory, a brief primer: the son of a wealthy real estate developer who went to prison, in part for retaliating against his brother-in-law for cooperating with federal investigators by hiring a prostitute to seduce the guy, filming the encounter, and sending it to his sister, Kushner attended Harvard to which his dad had reportedly conveniently pledged $2.5 million shortly before he was accepted. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, he drove a Range Rover around campus, and according to a classmate, “He didn’t do it with a sense of humor. He did it, like, ‘I’m fucking rich.’” At 27, he became CEO of his family’s business while his father was in prison and was known for, among other things, buying an aging skyscraper on the eve of the financial crisis for a then record price of $1.8 billion—a deal that subsequently blew up in his face. In 2006, he purchased the New York Observer for $10 million with what he said was his own money earned doing real estate deals during his time at Harvard, not mentioning that the backing for those investments reportedly came from his family. You may have also heard that he has zero government experience but got his current gig because his father-in-law is the president, which is also the only reason he was able to obtain his security clearance.

All of which is to say, when people think of hard-working, boot-strapping individuals who’ve succeeded purely on their own merits, they don’t think of the Boy Prince of New Jersey, who has effectively earned nothing in his life and has had everything handed to him by either his rich father or rich father-in-law, while nevertheless thinking he’s found himself on third base because he hit a triple. And yet, strangely, here’s what he had to say about Black people on Monday morning while—we think??— trying to convince said Black people to vote for Donald Trump:

So, just to recap, that’s adviser to the president Jared Kushner not just saying that Black Americans only have themselves to blame if they’re not successful—and not, say, centuries of systemic racism—but that they should quit bitching about their circumstances. And this was supposed to persuade the people he’s referring to to give his boss a second term in the White House and, by extension, keep him employed for another four years. (For the Kushnerphiles, this will likely be reminiscent of the time Jared tried to get Palestinians to sign onto his Middle East peace deal by calling them “hysterical and stupid”.)

Anyway, because the interview was going so well, and Kushner was presumably thinking to himself, You are nailing this Big J, fingers crossed Ivanka remembered to hit record on the DVR so we can toast how great it went tonight, he continued:

As for Kushner’s wife’s father’s relationship with the Black community, the apple obviously does not fall far from the rich-daddy-fuckup-son tree. Here are just a sampling of the things that Trump, who last week claimed “Nobody has done more for the Black community than Donald Trump” with the “possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln, has done to show his love for Black people:

Condemned Black Lives Matter and called it a “symbol of hate” while simultaneously defending armed white militants

Allegedly said “Tell me one country run by a Black person that isn’t a s---hole”

Reportedly only agreed to sign the First Step Act, which released or reduced sentences for thousands of inmates, many of whom were Black men who’d been convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, after being told it might help his poll numbers with Black people, and then “went s---house crazy” and asked “why the hell did I do that?” after it did not

Presided over a pandemic in which unemployment for Black people has disproportionately surged

Trump has also, according to the Washington Post, “maintained that Black Americans have mainly themselves to blame in their struggle for equality, hindered more by lack of initiative than societal impediments,” so maybe he and Kushner crafted this morning’s can’t-lose talking point together.