Totally unqualified coronavirus “expert” Jared Kushner had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment on Fox & Friends yesterday. The three lickspittle cohosts ate up every word of his Coronavirus Happy Talk.
Donald Trump hasn’t let the fact that his son-in-law lacks a single credential in medicine, infectious disease or public health keep him off the White House coronavirus task force. According to Vanity Fair, Trump had already ceded most of his responsibilities to Kushner before the pandemic. So why shouldn't he manage that, too? “Kushner quickly assembled a shadow network of coronavirus advisers that became more powerful than Pence’s official team,” Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman wrote.
But hey, maybe Kushner read some books – you know, the way he boned up before coming up with his Middle East peace plan.
De Facto President Kushner visited his Fox peeps yesterday to assure them not to pay attention to the depressing COVID-19 statistics because under the Trump (Kushner) leadership, it’s all Totally Awesome!!!
Cohost Steve Doocy began by prompting Kushner to talk up Daddy-in-law’s order to open meat plants and recklessly endanger workers. “How dire a situation was that?” Doocy asked, meaning the fact that the plants have been closing due to coronavirus outbreaks among the workers. Nobody seemed to care that the reopen order could mean a death sentence for them.
Kushner immediately launched into the kind of empathy-free, self-praise he might have learned from Trump. Kushner called the meat plant outbreaks just one of the many COVID-19 “unforeseen challenges” the administration has “worked hard through.”
Super Duper Christian cohost Ainsley Earhardt didn’t indicate any concern for the endangered workers. She immediately changed the subject to give Kushner a chance to blame China. “What do you make of China lashing out at the United States?” asked “safest time to fly” Earhardt.
Kushner responded that the White House has been “working hard to make sure” there’s enough PPE and ventilators for health care workers.” Health care workers and The New England Journal of Medicine say there is still a critical shortage. But not Fox & Friends. They let Kushner yammer on, unchallenged.
Cohost Brian Kilmeade immediately moved on to the next deflection, whether Trump will send an “invoice” to China, the Trump/Fox scapegoat for the pandemic's tragedies.
Before long, it was time for more Coronavirus Happy Talk from the world’s least qualified authority:
KUSHNER: The federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that’s really, you know, what needs to be told.
…
We’ve done more tests than any other country in the world so we’ve got to be doing a lot of things right.
FACT CHECK: The U.S. is way behind on testing per capita but not one of the three cohosts thought it more important to inform viewers than to put any damper on Kushner’s rosy rhetoric.
KUSHNER: I think what you’ll see in May, as the states are reopening now, is May will be a transition month. You’ll see a lot of states starting to phase in the different reopening based on the safety guidelines that President Trump outlined on April 19 and I think you’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal and the hope is that by July, the country’s really rocking again.
Doocy and Earhardt nodded.
Kushner never uttered a word of concern about the millions of Americans who have sickened or died.
You can watch the Happy Coronavirus talk below, from the April 29, 2020 Fox & Friends. And do make sure to hold Kushner to account for his words.