Here's the latest: the New York Times is reporting that White House adviser Jared Kushner had meetings with companies that had business about which he had to make decisions. Those same companies then gave millions of dollars to Kushner's private "foundation" which was supposed to be a charity but which actually was used by Kushner to cover all sorts of personal expenses like all of his family's travel costs and the even the salaries of the family's personal and political staff. The mainstream media is going crazy about this "corruption".
Actually, what I just described is how Hillary Clinton sold the influence of the State Department when she was Secretary of State. The mainstream media thought there was nothing wrong with that.
Here's what Kushner supposedly did. He had meetings with two large financial companies, Apollo Investments and Citibank. Those companies later loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner family business. That business has not been run by Jared Kushner since he started working at the White House. There is no proof that Jared Kushner even knew that Apollo and Citibank were involved in making business loans to the Kushner family business. It would not be unusual for companies of the size of Citibank to have meetings in the White House with someone who is a policy adviser to the President. There seems to be nothing in these disclosures that shows any wrongdoing by Kushner. If he truly kept himself uninvolved in the family business while at the White House, he would not know about any dealings with Citibank or Apollo. On the other hand, if Kushner kept himself informed about what the family business was doing, the New York Times and the baying hounds of the media would, no doubt, chastise him for conflict of interest.
The reality is that unless there is proof of something more than what the Times is pushing, there is no real story here. That won't stop the story from being featured non-stop for the next two weeks on CNN and other mainstream media outlets. The reality, however, is that at the moment, it is what a few months ago was called a nothingburger.
Actually, what I just described is how Hillary Clinton sold the influence of the State Department when she was Secretary of State. The mainstream media thought there was nothing wrong with that.
Here's what Kushner supposedly did. He had meetings with two large financial companies, Apollo Investments and Citibank. Those companies later loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner family business. That business has not been run by Jared Kushner since he started working at the White House. There is no proof that Jared Kushner even knew that Apollo and Citibank were involved in making business loans to the Kushner family business. It would not be unusual for companies of the size of Citibank to have meetings in the White House with someone who is a policy adviser to the President. There seems to be nothing in these disclosures that shows any wrongdoing by Kushner. If he truly kept himself uninvolved in the family business while at the White House, he would not know about any dealings with Citibank or Apollo. On the other hand, if Kushner kept himself informed about what the family business was doing, the New York Times and the baying hounds of the media would, no doubt, chastise him for conflict of interest.
The reality is that unless there is proof of something more than what the Times is pushing, there is no real story here. That won't stop the story from being featured non-stop for the next two weeks on CNN and other mainstream media outlets. The reality, however, is that at the moment, it is what a few months ago was called a nothingburger.
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