Jen Psaki rips White House over defense of Jared Kushner’s conflict of interest

[Thiệu Ngô]

Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s son-in-law, who’s raked in millions from the Middle East, and claimed he’s “donating” his time to “secure world peace.”

By Allison Detzel

Jen Psaki called out the White House for its bizarre defense of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose company has netted billions from countries in the Middle East while he has continued to advise the administration on foreign policy in the region.

On Wednesday's “The Briefing,” Psaki debuted her latest edition of “Jen’s Version,” a segment of the show in which the former Biden administration press secretary offers her take on questions asked by reporters during that day’s White House press briefing, providing real answers instead of Trump administration spin.

During the briefing, one reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Kushner’s reported role in the Gaza peace plan and why the administration decided “that it is appropriate for Jared Kushner to be working on matters that involve Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia — three countries that combined have given him more than $2.5 billion for his investment firm?”

While Psaki said she doesn’t usually show Leavitt’s response during the segment, the former Biden administration official said viewers needed to hear the press secretary’s attempted spin. “I think it’s frankly despicable that you’re trying to suggest that it’s inappropriate,” Leavitt said. “Jared is donating his energy and his time to our government, to the president of the United States to secure world peace.”

Psaki wasn’t buying Leavitt’s defense. “I don’t know how Karoline thinks donating your time works but, typically, donated time does not come with financial returns — like huge ones,” she said.

“The Briefing” host then laid out some of Kushner’s recent deals. “I mean, just this Monday, we learned that Jared Kushner’s private equity firm has teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund for the largest private equity buyout ever, buying the video game company Electronic Arts for $55 billion,” she said. “That, of course, comes on top of the $2 billion Saudi Arabia has already invested in Kushner’s private equity fund and the $1.5 billion Kushner got from the UAE and Qatar late last year.”

“But how dare reporters suggest that it is inappropriate for Jared to be involved in White House discussions impacting those countries?” Psaki asked sarcastically. “What an outrageous question — his company is only getting literally billions of dollars from them.”

Psaki then directed her ire toward the president’s party, “Meanwhile, Republicans are so unwilling to shell out for the health care of millions of Americans, they’re shutting the government down.”