ON MONDAY, WHITE House senior advisor Jared Kushner spoke to a group of congressional interns as part of an ongoing, off-the-record summer lecture series. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, Kushner may have inadvertently offered some insight into the negotiating tactics he is using in the Middle East.
WIRED has obtained a recording of Kushner’s talk, which lasted for just under an hour in total.
The speech—which was peppered with self-deprecating jokes as reported by Foreign Policy—offered a rare insight into the man who President Trump has tasked with criminal justice reform, managing the opioid crisis, updating the government’s technological systems, and creating peace in the Middle East, among other tasks. It’s the latter, though, that’s both the most deeply personal for Kushner (a staunch supporter of Israel) and that prompted him to embark on his longest, most rambling answer during yesterday’s question-and-answer session.
While the recording doesn’t catch the entirety of the question, it appears to center on how Kushner plans to negotiate peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as why he believes he’ll be successful where every other administration has failed. He doesn’t directly answer either question, but he does reveal that, from his extensive research, he’s learned that “not a whole lot has been accomplished over the last 40 or 50 years.” He also notes that he’s spoken to “a lot of people,” which has taught him that “this is a very emotionally charged situation.”
AUDIO:
we got audio of jared kushner’s off-the-record intern talk yesterday https://t.co/jf7wPLK4Gj
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) August 1, 2017
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