Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner defended President Trump against charges of racism.
Axios reporter Jonathan Swan sat down with Trump’s son-in-law for a wide-ranging discussion that aired Sunday on HBO.
Swan said freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Trump a racist and asked Kushner if he has ever witnessed the president say or do anything racist or bigoted.
“So, the answer is no, absolutely not,” he said. “You can’t not be a racist for 69 years and then run for president and be a racist.”
Kushner said Democrats calling Trump a racist are “doing a disservice to people who suffer because of real racism in this country.”
Jared Kushner deflects when asked if he disapproves of Donald Trump’s promotion of birtherism, saying he wasn’t involved with it. @DCTVny @HBODocs pic.twitter.com/YTYaDCJJVa
— Axios (@axios) June 2, 2019
[Also read: Bernie Sanders: Trump ‘is a racist’]
Swan also asked Kushner if “birtherism,” a movement that questioned former President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship and eligibility to be president, was racist. The birther movement had an advocate in Trump until he admitted during the presidential campaign that Obama was born in the U.S.
“I wasn’t really involved in that,” Kushner said for each of the first two times he was asked.
On the third occurrence, Kushner said, “Look, I know who the president is, and I have not seen anything in him that is racist. So again, I was not involved in that.”
Swan additionally brought up how critics say Trump campaigned on banning Muslims from the U.S.
“Would you describe that as religiously bigoted?” he asked.
After saying Trump “did his campaign the way he did his campaign,” Kushner dodged when asked if he wished his father-in-law had conducted his campaign differently.
“I think he’s here today, and I think he’s doing a lot of great things for the country, and that’s what I’m proud of,” he said.
