A new report claims that Jared Kushner didn’t want a federal response to the Coronavirus pandemic and blamed New York for the suffering that the virus would cause there.
A blockbuster report in Vanity Fair outlines comments Kushner made at a meeting about on March 20 Federal Emergency Management Agency that was meant to develop a strategy involving the federal government and private industry.
“The federal government is not going to lead this response,” Kushner said, reportedly sitting at the head of the table and in a higher chair than everyone else.
“It’s up to the states to figure out what they want to do.”
When it was pointed out that states were bidding against each other to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and forcing up prices, Kushner dismissed a federal response to the issue.
“Free markets will solve this,” Kushner said. “That is not the role of government.”
According to the report, an attendee at the meeting pointed to a CNN report to show the difficulties New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was having and his plea for supplies.
“That’s the CNN bullshit,” Kushner replied. “They lie.”
“Cuomo didn’t pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state…. His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem,” he said.
The exhaustive Vanity Fair article outlines a number of other claims about the meeting and Kushner’s response to the virus, which will raise even more questions about the administration’s approach.
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