Blunderkind Jared Kushner made a rare public appearance Thursday at his daddy-in-law’s daily “press briefing” on the coronavirus, and demonstrated yet again why he’s so rarely let out in public—and why he shouldn’t be in charge of anything more critical that the White House’s office supplies. Defending his decision (because apparently he’s now making decisions) to not provide New York with all the ventilators it needs, Kushner claimed that the national stockpile is “ours” and not the states’. “The notion of the federal stockpile is supposed to be our stockpile,” he said, “not supposed to be state stockpiles.” Get that? They’re Trump’s stockpiles now, and until he can figure out how to make a buck off of them, states had better get their grubby hands away.
The same goes for those masks all the doctors and nurses seem to think they’re entitled to, Kushner went on to claim in all his newfound expertise about the public health system. “The N95 masks is an item that was not used as frequently in the medical profession before this,” he declared. “It was used mostly for diseases.” Um, Jared? Do you know what that word “disease” means?
He then said that “we are encouraging the state to make sure they're assessing the needs, getting the data from their local situations and trying to fill it with supplies we have given them.” Which is exactly not what he did with New York in the first place.
When New York was pleading for ventilators, assessing their need and trying to get ahead of the coming disaster by having an adequate supply, Kushner nixed the request because he knew better. He reportedly told Trump "I have all this data about ICU capacity. I'm doing my own projections, and I've gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn't need all the ventilators."
For the record, the Strategic National Stockpile is intended to provide “life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.” That’s what their website says. “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.”
There’s blood on Kushner’s hands, as much blood as on Trump’s.
Sign the petition: Jared Kushner cannot be anywhere close to the coronavirus response
