White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that investigations into Trump campaign interactions with Russian elements “had a much harsher impact on our democracy” than Russian attempts to influence voters.
Kushner dismissively referred to Russia’s 2016 efforts as “a couple Facebook ads” during an on-stage interview at a forum hosted by Time magazine.
“You look at what Russia did, you know, buying some Facebook ads to sow dissent and do it — and it’s a terrible thing — but I think the investigations and all the speculation that’s happened for the last two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple Facebook ads,” Kushner said.
He added: “I think they said they spent about $160,000. I spent about $160,000 on Facebook every three hours during the campaign. If you look at what the magnitude of what they did and what they accomplished, I think the ensuing investigations have been way more harmful to our country.”
[READ: Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report]
White House reporter Brian Bennett contested Kushner’s characterization of Russian efforts, saying they featured more than Facebook ads, including hacking Democratic emails, as described in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report released last week.
“Our focus during the campaign was on the candidate, on the message,” Kushner responded. “In the campaign, we didn’t know that Russia was doing what they were doing. … the notion of what they were doing didn’t even register to us as being impactful.”
Kushner also defended his role in attending an infamous 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russians teasing dirt on Hillary Clinton. According to Mueller’s report, Kushner became aggravated during the meeting, texting then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort “waste of time” and emailing two assistants requesting that they call to give him an excuse to leave.
“Lindsey Graham told me I’ve had the best text message in the history of text messages when I was in that crazy meeting in Trump Tower and I said, ‘Get me the hell out of here,’ basically. It was a meeting that had it never come up and had it never been done, I wouldn’t have thought of again. But now, the media spends so much time focusing on it. And quite frankly, the whole thing is just a big distraction for the country,” he said.
Kushner said he believed Russia-collusion theories were so popular because many people did not expect Trump to win the election.
“I think that instead of saying, ‘Oh wait, we got it wrong’, they said, ‘Maybe it was Russia,'” he said.
[Also read: Jared Kushner ready to deliver immigration plan in coming days]
