Hunter Who? PBS Condemns Saudi Investment in Kushner

PBS NewsHour has finally discovered allegations of corrupt behavior in the president’s family. No, not Hunter Biden, but former President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. On Friday’s show, host Judy Woodruff, New York Times Columnist David Brooks Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart all condemned Kushner’s “shameless” behavior both during the Trump presidency and after.

Towards the end of their weekly roundtable, Woodruff brought up some recent news involving Kushner, “But I do want to reserve the last minute-and-a-half or so, David, for the report we just heard from Geoff Bennett on Jared Kushner getting this massive investment from the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. I mean, what lines are there, what lines should there be for this kind of thing to be going on?”

Brooks responded focused on the details of the details of the investment, “Well, to me, the mind-boggling thing is, Jared Kushner is not a private equity guy. He’s a commercial real estate guy. This is a different enterprise than opening a private equity company. This is like having surgery. It’s like you can’t turn the dial. The fact that Saudis are willing to invest is clear evidence of political mafioso behaviour. You help me, and I help you. Maybe you will help me down the line. It is classic mafia corruption. And, you know, there’s not much more to be said, except for it’s shameless.”

When it was his turn, Capehart was even more outraged and recalled Kushner’s role in shaping Trump’s Middle Eastern strategy, “it sounds to me like it is MBS giving basically a payoff to—to– his buddy Jared Kushner, who protected the Saudi weapons sales that Congress was trying to rescind after evidence came forward that MBS ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, who was a global opinions columnist for the Washington Post. And for a senior American — United States official to do that is unconscionable.”

What Capehart and so many others cannot come to terms with is that Trump courted the Saudis by doing a 180 from President Obama’s Iran strategy, which helped the neophyte Kushner being able to secure more Arab-Israeli peace deals in four years than previous administrations, who went about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the “right way,” were able to get in seven decades.  Hunter Biden, despite all his business deals, hasn’t done anything to advance U.S. interests.

Woodruff then began to wrap up the segment by returning to the investment, telling Brooks “There are no legal limits to doing something like this, are there, David?”

Brooks concluded that Kushner is simply an indecent man, “We used to think people were restrained by common decency. But that train went away a long time ago.”

A decent segment would not only include references to the current president’s son, but if Woodruff insisted on talking about Kushner, somebody should at least have mentioned his historic policy successes with the Saudis.

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This transcript is for the April 16th show.

PBS NewsHour

4/16/2022

7.51 pm ET

JUDYWOODRUFF You know, the lines that should exist for something like this to happen.

DAVID BROOKS: To me the most mind-boggling fact is Jared Kushner, who is not an investor in private equity. He’s a commercial real estate guy. This is a different enterprise than opening a private equity company. This is like having surgery. It’s like you can’t turn the dial. The fact that Saudis are willing to invest is clear evidence of political mafioso behaviour. You help me, and I help you. Maybe you will help me down the line. It is typical mafia corruption. It’s just mafia-like corruption.

WOODRUFF: Jonathan?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: It—it–it sounds to me like it is MBS giving basically a payoff to—to– his buddy Jared Kushner, who protected the Saudi weapons sales that Congress was trying to rescind after evidence came forward that MBS ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, who was a global opinions columnist for the Washington Post. And for a senior American — United States official to do that is unconscionable.

WOODRUFF: And—and– yet it happened. There is no set of rules.

CAPEHART:  Right.

WOODRUFF – I don’t mean Jonathan and David, but there are no boundaries. David, there are no legal limitations to this kind of thing.

BROOKS: No. Our perception of people was that they were controlled by their common decency. This train was long gone.

WOODRUFF : We’ll leave it at that. David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, we thank you.