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Title: Kushner Again: How He Helped Push Trump Into A Ditch In Alabama
Source:
MSN News
URL Source: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit ... -alabama/ar-AAszFfy?li=BBnb7Kz
Published: Sep 28, 2017
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2017-09-28 11:19:39 by IbJensen
Keywords: None
Views: 977
Comments: 15
Once again, President Donald Trump finds himself in trouble after taking political advice from his son-in-law. Over the last few months, Jared Kushner, who is also a White House senior adviser, was chief among those who lobbied the president to endorse Luther Strange, the losing candidate in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary in Alabama. According to two sources who work closely with the young real estate tycoon, Kushner suggested the endorsement, in part, because he believed that a Strange victory would enrage Steve Bannon, the newly reinstalled executive chairman of Breitbart News and a nemesis of Kushner’s from their time together in the Trump White House. Bannon backed the primary winner, Roy Moore, who thinks that homosexuality should be criminalized and suggested this week that parts of the United States are operating under Sharia. Kushner also thought that getting Trump to support Strange would improve his own tenuous standing with Republican leaders in the Senate, according to several allies of Bannon. “He’s going to need them if things go south in the Russia investigation,” one explained. The senatorial primary between Strange and Moore was widely viewed as a proxy war between the Republican Party’s establishment forces and its white nationalist fringe. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, strongly supported Strange. Bannon, on the other hand, suggested at a rally for Moore on Monday that a “reckoning is coming” not just for McConnell, but for all the “donors” and “corporatists” he believes run the party. That Trump ultimately supported Strange, tweeting on his behalf and attending a campaign event for him last week, was puzzling to many of the president’s supporters, given his strained relationship with McConnell and his sympathies for Bannon’s populist worldview. Presidents rarely endorse one candidate over another in a primary election. But Kushner was a critical early voice in convincing the president to take a side. McConnell and Rick Dearborn, the White House deputy chief of staff, also were instrumental at various points in the process. Sources close to Bannon noted that Trump first tweeted about Strange on Aug. 8, when Kushner was with the president at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “No senior adviser to the president in their right mind would ever lead the president to get involved in a primary, let alone a highly contested one that pitted his own base against him,” said Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump ― and a close friend of Bannon’s. “Anyone with a pulse knew that Luther was going to lose the runoff. Luther barely survived the primary.” The president hadn’t paid attention to the race until recently. According to three sources with direct knowledge, when Moore emerged victorious in the three-candidate first round of voting last month, winning 39 percent, Trump asked confidants: “Who’s he?” Kushner started advocating for Trump to back Strange after speaking with veteran Republican strategist Jeff Roe. Roe, who is friendly with Kushner, ran Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) presidential campaign in 2016 and was hired by Strange earlier this year. Roe sent Kushner emails loaded with polling data that suggested Strange would win easily over Moore and the third candidate in August’s primary election, Rep. Mo Brooks. Kushner forwarded those emails “to appropriate parties,” a White House official said. Kushner was also alerted to the fact that Brooks had called Trump a “serial adulterer” during the 2016 primary, when Brooks was supporting Cruz. Trump, several sources say, had no idea that Brooks disparaged him until Kushner passed along the news, and it sunk any chances of Trump endorsing him. (The White House official denied this, saying Kushner never spoke about Brooks or the Alabama race to the president.) Backing Strange, then, seemed like an obvious choice to Kushner. Several sources close to both Moore and Bannon said they believe Kushner wanted to show McConnell that he had real influence with the president ― and that he wanted to show Trump he knew how to win. “All Jared thinks about is beating Bannon,” said a well-connected friend of the Breitbart chief. “It consumed him before Bannon left the White House, and it consumes him now.” That sentiment was confirmed to me by a source who knows Kushner well and has a more positive view of him. (The White House official dismissed the anti-Bannon notion as “totally untrue.”) But Kushner misread the mood of Alabama Republicans. Moore won this week’s race by 10 percentage points. And shortly thereafter, ProPublica discovered that Trump had deleted his previous tweets supporting Strange. According to CNN, Trump went to bed on Tuesday night “embarrassed and pissed.” Breitbart wasted little time in highlighting Kushner’s “awful advice.” An article Wednesday noted that Kushner has a “disturbing pattern” of getting the president in trouble, referencing Kushner’s suggestion that Trump fire former FBI director James Comey. This time, according to Breitbart, Kushner stands accused of dividing Trump from his base. “He has succeeded in doing the only thing that could be fatal to Trump’s presidency and re-election prospects — driven a wedge between the president and his supporters.” What’s clear, explained someone who has good relations with both Bannon and Kushner, is that the feud between the two of them shows no signs of dying down ― and that Bannon’s side will offer little grace in victory. “Kushner wants to show Trump he is the smarter of the two, but it is not working,” said a friend of Bannon’s. Two sources confirmed that Trump told confidants Tuesday night that while he is not pleased that Bannon’s candidate won, he is not upset at his former strategic adviser. What he feels about Kushner and his role in the Alabama fiasco is not known. Poster Comment: Send that kid out to find a job someplace other than the White House. MSN is a wholly biased news source, but the details of this are true.
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#1. To: IbJensen (#0)
(Edited)
It is bizarre for a prez to hire his son-in-law and daughter as primary advisers. And a bad idea if he needs to fire them or get more effective aides. People might mention JFK hiring Bobby Kennedy as attorney general. Bobby had his problems but he knew politics and didn't bumble around much as A.G. Kushner already has a far worse record as a mere advisor than Bobby did in his entire tenure as A.G. And they still haven't done much to lock down all that leaking from the W.H. This article is full of unnamed sources (assuming they do actually exist).
Amateur hour as far as the kids are concerned, but by and large I am very pleased that Trump is president because the alternative would have been catastrophic.
Liberals are like Slinkys. They're good for nothing, but somehow they bring a smile to your face as you shove them down the stairs.
I agree. But at a certain point, you have to just stop repeating (as I have myself done) that at least Trump isn't Hitlery. Well, obviously that is true. That still doesn't make it a good idea to hire your own children who are unqualified for national security positions as your closest advisors. That's okay in a private business and a really bad idea in government. I'd feel differently if Javanka were not dyed-in-the-wool NYC liberal Dems. Or if Kushner hadn't given Trump such terrible advice, over and over. Anyone else would have been fired. Trump, in fact, did fire Bannon who never gave him that bad advice on firing Comey that directly resulted in Mueller being appointed special prosecutor. That alone would have gotten any other advisor fired. Kushner has made several more errors just as bad. But is Trump gonna fire him? Well, that's pretty tough to do.
I'd feel differently if Javanka were not dyed-in-the-wool NYC liberal Dems. Or if Kushner hadn't given Trump such terrible advice, over and over. Anyone else would have been fired. Trump, in fact, did fire Bannon who never gave him that bad advice on firing Comey that directly resulted in Mueller being appointed special prosecutor. That alone would have gotten any other advisor fired. Kushner has made several more errors just as bad. But is Trump gonna fire him? Well, that's pretty tough to do. " Yep !! Si vis pacem, para bellum Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Never Pick A Fight With An Old Man He Will Just Shoot You He Can't Afford To Get Hurt "If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." (Will Rogers)
This is fake. I doubt Trump didn't know who Moore was. Trump follow things to closely for that to be the case.
I don't think he knew much about who Strange was either. A friend of Sessions, McConnell told Trump it would be far easier to work with Strange, that Strange had a strong record in supporting Trump in the Senate. I think it was only after he endorsed Strange and was committed to that rally that he found out who Moore was and how strong his support was. Hence his offhand remarks about "maybe I backed the wrong horse" and "I'll campaign like hell for whichever man wins the runoff".
Trump was not pushed into a ditch by Kushner. He backed McConnell's candidate to get McConnell to get something done in the Senate. The only one in the ditch in Alabama is Strange. Trump is better off with Judge Moore. It is not puzzling. It is explanatory. Everything dies in the Senate.
Not really. Moore has demonstrated his main skill is grandstanding. He got elected chief justice twice doing it by pulling stunts. In recent radio interview, he had no idea of what DACA was and the radio host had to explain it to him. As one wag put it, Moore is a show horse, not a workhorse. And that is his record as a jurist. Pretty damned sloppy for a supposed chief justice who got thrown off his own supreme court by its other members.
Before he gets to vote on DACA, he will know which way to vote. Lobbyists will know not to bother with him.
Moore is unprofessional and obtained his positions by grandstanding. Much as with Trump, at that age men don't change much. Moore says a lot of damaging things. Expect him to introduce bills to recriminalize sodomy and such. He likes to announce things like gay sex is identical to bestiality, specifically sex with a cow. I'm not sure why he chose a cow but perhaps that's all he's familiar with. Moore is like Trump but a lot less sophisticated. If you can imagine that.
How sophisticated does one have to be to fit with Congress these days? He may rabble rouse in Congress, but he won't vote for Obamacare or DACA or a liberal justice.
Moore upheld his oath. Corrupt people threw him out. It isn't grandstanding standing up for his right to display the 10 amendments. That in principal. I'd like to see the interview where he didn't know what DACA was. I have a hard time believing that. He will be in the top 3 to 5 Senators.
He refused legit orders from his superior courts. He ordered agencies to do things against the law. Judges just don't do that. This is why he got thrown off his own supreme court twice. He's lucky he wasn't disbarred entirely. I'd like to hope that he'll settle down, do some homework, try to restrain himself. But he has nothing like Sessions' political skills and ability to pick fights sensibly. Moore is a crude character.
You're wrong and you're wrong. I hope he gets more radical. No need debating it we both have our opinions.
It would have some entertainment value. Moore in the Senate would be like a LePage in the Senate, except much more so.
Send that kid out to find a job someplace other than the White House.
#2. To: Tooconservative (#1)
#3. To: IbJensen (#2)
Amateur hour as far as the kids are concerned, but by and large I am very pleased that Trump is president because the alternative would have been catastrophic.
#4. To: Tooconservative (#3)
" at a certain point, you have to just stop repeating (as I have myself done) that at least Trump isn't Hitlery. Well, obviously that is true. That still doesn't make it a good idea to hire your own children who are unqualified for national security positions as your closest advisors. That's okay in a private business and a really bad idea in government.
#5. To: IbJensen (#2)
#6. To: A K A Stone (#5)
I doubt Trump didn't know who Moore was.
#7. To: IbJensen (#0)
Kushner Again: How He Helped Push Trump Into A Ditch In Alabama
That Trump ultimately supported Strange, tweeting on his behalf and attending a campaign event for him last week, was puzzling to many of the president’s supporters, given his strained relationship with McConnell....
#8. To: nolu chan (#7)
Trump is better off with Judge Moore.
#9. To: Tooconservative (#8)
#10. To: nolu chan (#9)
#11. To: Tooconservative (#10)
Moore is like Trump but a lot less sophisticated. If you can imagine that.
#12. To: Tooconservative (#8)
#13. To: A K A Stone (#12)
Moore upheld his oath. Corrupt people threw him out.
He will be in the top 3 to 5 Senators.
#14. To: Tooconservative (#13)
#15. To: A K A Stone (#14)
I hope he gets more radical.
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