Jared Kushner in his interview with Axios

Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner gives a high-profile interview, but struggles on topics such as his Israel-Palestine “peace plan”, claims of Trump racism, abortion, and refugees.

Kushner is trying to establish his public position before finally unveiling the Middle East plan. However, in an interview with Axios, he ran into trouble over the lack of provisions beyond a nebulous call for economic development of Palestine — which mirrors the line of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the Trump Administration cuts all aid to the West Bank and Gaza.

Kushner has not spoken to Palestinian leaders for more than a year, and they are sceptical about a pro-Israel bias, with no consideration of Palestinian statehood and an end to the Israeli military presence.

The advisor dismissed any problem, “I’m not here to be trusted”. He said the Palestinian people will not “judge anything based on trusting me”, and instead “make a determination: Do they think this will allow them to have a pathway to a better life or not?”

Asked if Palestinians should have an independent state with a capital in East Jerusalem, Kushner brushed away the fundamental issued:

There’s a difference between the technocrats and…the people….[While] the technocrats are focused on very technocratic things, when I speak to Palestinian people, what they want is they want the opportunity to live a better life. They want the opportunity to pay their mortgage.

Asked how he knows what Palestinians want, Kushner implied that he has many private conversations with them which are not known to the press.

Then he effectively threw shade on their aspirations for self-government without Israeli occupation:

Q: Do you believe that the Palestinians are capable of governing themselves without Israeli interference?

Kushner: I think that’s a very good question. I think that that’s one that we’ll have to see. The hope is is that they, over time, can become capable of governing….

Q: Can they have freedom from any Israeli government or military interference?

Kushner: I think that it’s a high bar.

Evading Racism

Asked, “Have you ever seen [Trump] say or do anything that you would describe as racist or bigoted?”, Kushner tried to turn the question into an attack on Democrats:

Absolutely not. You can’t not be a racist for 69 years and then run for president and be a racist.

What I’ll say is that when a lot of the Democrats cause the president a racist, I think they’re doing a disservice to people who suffer because of real racism in this country.

But then Axios’ Craig Swan raised specific issues, such as Trump’s promotion of the lie that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya: “Was birtherism racist?”

Kushner retreated, “Um, look, I wasn’t really involved in that.”

Swan said, “I know you weren’t!” and repeated the question three times. Each time Kushner said, “I was not involved.”

The interviewer shifted to Trump’s rhetoric leading to his Presidential ban on entry into the US by citizens of six mainly-Muslim countries: “He campaigned on banning Muslims. Would you describe that as religiously bigoted?

Kushner replied, “I think that the president did his campaign the way he did his campaign.”

Swan took on the non-answer, “Do you wish he didn’t make that speech?

Kushner refused to be drawn, “Uh, 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.”

A Not-So-Independent Independent Advisor

There was more evasion as Swan about Trump’s embrace of strict limits on abortions, as some states have restricted them to the first six weeks of pregnancy or even banned them altogether.

Kushner had tried to portray his resolve and his father-in-law’s integrity: “I think he respects people who are willing to be honest with him. When I do disagree, you’ll never read about it in the press.”

But Swan quickly collapsed the position, “Where do you stand on abortion?”

Kushner hid, “I was not the person who was elected.”

Challenged, “So you agree with the president’s position?”, Kushner’s independence of thought turned into, “I’m here to enforce his positions. His position is the one that as a staffer in the White House, we’ll work to push.”

He was more forthcoming in defending Trump’s sharp restrictions on admission of refugees into the US.

The grandson of refugees, Kushner spoke of the journey from “the precipice of life and death”. Then he said, “You can’t have all of them come into your country.”

Trump has restricted refugee entry to a 40-year low, but Kushner assured:

[The number] doesn’t make a difference one way or the another.

“I think the amount of money you can spend to help refugees to resettle in their countries and deal with aid is very impactful.