Trump’s Jewish son-in-law says president-elect won’t tolerate hate

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law urged the country to give the incoming president a chance and discover he “won’t tolerate hateful rhetoric or behavior.”

In an expansive new interview with Forbes magazine on Tuesday, his first since Trump’s surprise victory two weeks ago, the usually press-shy Jared Kushner defended his father-in-law from allegations of bigotry and anti-Semitism.

The publication of his comments came a day after video surfaced of alt-right leader Richard Spencer using Nazi-infused language to praise the incoming president at a conference this weekend, while an audience chanted “Hail Trump!” and extended Nazi salutes.

In the interview, Kushner told Steven Bertoni that despite the support Trump has received, and excitement he’s elicited, from groups like the Klu Klux Klan and the alt-right movement, he knows his father-in-law to be someone who does not reflect their values, emphasizing that their more-than-a-decade-long relationship gives him special insight into the man that others lack.

“If I know somebody and everyone else says that this person’s a terrible person, I’m not going to start thinking that this person’s a terrible person or disassociating myself, when my empirical data and experience is a lot more informed than many of the people casting these judgments,” he said.

“What would that say about me if I changed my view based on what other people think, as opposed to the facts that I actually know for myself?” he asked.

The 35-year-old — who married Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2009 — went on to say that suggestions his father-in-law harbors feelings of racism or anti-Semitism, or that he is giving rise to them in others, are fabrication and hyperbole.

“I just know a lot of the things that people try to attack him with are just not true or overblown or exaggerations,” Kushner said. “I know his character. I know who he is, and I obviously would not have supported him if I thought otherwise. If the country gives him a chance, they’ll find he won’t tolerate hateful rhetoric or behavior.”

On Monday, the Trump team responded to the media whirlwind that ensued after the release of the Richard Spencer video by denouncing racism but not the alt-right, an aggregation of self-described white nationalists and neo-Nazis who served as a constituency of support during his campaign.

“President-elect Trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and was elected because he will be a leader for every American,” said Trump spokesman Bryan Lanza. “To think otherwise is a complete misrepresentation of the movement that united Americans from all backgrounds.”

But on Tuesday, Trump went further, condemning and disavowing the alt-right. “It’s not a group I want to energize,” he reportedly said of the movement. “And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why.”

There have also been more than 700 reported incidents of hateful harassment since Trump’s election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been monitoring and keeping track of such occurrences.

Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, has defended the president-elect against charges of anti-Semitism in the past, particularly after Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton with a Star of David superimposed on a pile of cash. The caption beneath it read: “Most corrupt candidate ever!”

Responding to that controversy, Kushner penned an op-ed in The New York Observer, a publication he owns, and argued that accusations of “anti-Semitism” and “racism” were being used about his father-in-law “with a carelessness that risks rendering these words meaningless.”

In the interview with Forbes, Kushner also insisted that Trump has been anything but a bigot for his entire life, and that it would be unlikely for him to start now.

“You can’t not be a racist for 69 years, then all of a sudden become a racist, right?” he said, referring to Trump’s age, though he turned 70 in June. “You can’t not be an anti-Semite for 69 years and all of a sudden become an anti-Semite because you’re running.”

Others have disputed that the real estate mogul has a clean record on race prior to running for president. In 1973, the Justice Department launched an investigation into him and his father Fred Trump for allegations that their company, Trump Management, was discriminating against African Americans.

In his conversations with Bertoni, Kushner said that Trump’s critics would likely continue to link him with bigotry despite his articulated disapproval of the KKK and other white supremacist groups.

“Trump has disavowed their support 25 times,” he said. “He’s renounced hatred, he’s renounced bigotry, and he’s renounced racism. I don’t know if he could ever denounce them enough for some people.”

But Kushner also addressed concerns about Trump’s own rhetoric, including his “America First” mantra, which drew the ire of many in the Jewish community for its echoes of the 1940 presidential campaign of isolationist Charles Lindbergh, who openly espoused anti-Semitic views.

“I don’t think it’s very controversial in an election to become the president of the United States to say that your position is to put America first and to be nationalist as opposed to a globalist.”

Since Trump won the Nov. 8 election, commentators have noted his ability to appeal to disaffected white working class voters who felt excluded from the gains of globalization.

In his first interview since then, Kushner also pressed on with defending former Breitbart head Stephen Bannon, who left the website in August 2016 to become the Trump campaign CEO, calling him “an incredible Zionist” who “loves Israel.”

Support for Bannon

 

Last week, Trump announced that Bannon would be his chief White House strategist come January 20, 2017.

The move ignited widespread controversy, including from Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Reform and Conservative movements, which have called for Trump to rescind the appointment.

As executive chairman of Breitbart News from 2012 to 2016, Bannon pushed a nationalist agenda and turned the publication into what he called “the platform for the alt-right,” a movement that views immigration and multiculturalism as a threat to white identity.

Moreover, the website became known for incendiary content. In March, it came under fire for a headline calling anti-Trump Republican Bill Kristol “a renegade Jew.”

In June 2015, shortly after an assailant who had taken pictures posing with a Confederate Flag murdered nine African-Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, it posted an article with the headline: “Hoist It High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage.”

Kushner pushed back against the racist allegations surrounding Bannon by saying he shouldn’t be necessarily associated with the content that was released on the website under his watch.

“Do you hold me accountable for every single thing that the Observer has ever written, like they came from me?” he said. “All I know about Steve is my experience working with him. He’s an incredible Zionist and loves Israel.”

Kushner further emphasized Bannon’s opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. “What I’ve seen from working together with him was somebody who did not fit the description that people are pushing on him,” he said. “I choose to judge him based on my experience and seeing the job he’s done, as opposed to what other people are saying about him.”