08/17/20
Jared Kushner Says 170,000 U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Is A Success Story
Echoing President Trump’s frequent claim that his response to the coronavirus pandemic has been largely effective, White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner said Monday that the U.S. death toll from the virus has been a success story and that Trump administration officials have “done our best.”
KEY FACTS
“170,000 dead Americans, would you still suggest that this has been a success story,” asked CNN host Wolf Blitzer – referring to Kushner’s characterization of Trump’s response in April – to which Kushner responded, “yes.”
Kushner conceded there have been “a lot of challenges” and that, in the first phase of the virus, “we didn’t know what to expect,” but nonetheless argued that the administration has largely done the best job it could do.
“We've done our best. The case fatality rate has dropped tremendously,” Kushner added, predicting that the U.S. “will emerge from this much stronger than ever before."
Kushner said the U.S. is presently in the “middle phase” of the outbreak, claiming “we’re using all the knowledge we have right now to deal with, strategically, how do we learn from what we had and protect the vulnerable?”
The comments come as the latest in a long narrative Trump and his surrogates have cultivated that the 170,000 deaths so far fall well short of what was projected.
Trump told Axios reporter Jonathan Swan earlier this month that the virus is “under control as much as you can control it,” later claiming, “Nobody can do what I’ve done, in terms of all of the things we’re doing to combat this horrible disease."
BIG NUMBER
100,000. That’s the low end of American coronavirus deaths the White House coronavirus task force projected in March. The 170,000 figure falls well within the middle range of that model, presented by task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci, which projected between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths.
CHIEF CRITIC
Elizabeth Spiers, the editor-in-chief of the New York Observer when Kushner owned the paper, responded to Kushner’s latest comments by pointing to a Washington Post op-ed she penned in May entitled, “I worked for Jared Kushner. Of course he says his covid-19 failure is a success.” Spiers argued that Kushner’s “modus operandi” is touting failure as success but noted that, this time around, he is “echoing the equally preposterous rhetoric of his father-in-law.”
TANGENT
Kushner also played defense for the president in the interview by parrying allegations made by former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor that Trump frequently acted above the law and sought to withhold wildfire aid from Californians because they were Democrats. “Miles was a nice kid, he worked here for a couple years. But it makes a lot of sense to me he's endorsing Joe Biden,” Kushner said, arguing that, during Miles’ tenure at DHS, “no wall was built and the border was wide open.” Kushner added, “Clearly he wasn't up to the task.”
Links:
Forbes.com
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