Jared Kushner thinks Mueller had a 'harsher effect on our democracy' than Russian election interference
Jared Kushner has a predictable first response to the Mueller report.
In a Tuesday appearance at the TIME 100 summit, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser discussed last week's Mueller report release, characterizing it all as just "a big distraction for the whole country." But instead of touching on the report's details on Trump's possible obstruction of justice, Kushner focused on the far less controversial Russian election interference.
While American intelligence officials largely concluded that the interference happened, and that it was a big deal, Kushner decided to brush it all off as "a couple of Facebook ads" that Russia purchased for about $160,000. The Mueller probe itself "had a much harsher impact on our democracy" than the ads, Kushner added, but failed to acknowledge that Russia's Facebook ad buy was only a tiny chunk of its entire interference operations.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
NBC News' Ben Collins was quick to correct Kushner's characterization, tweeting that Russia's "troll farm spent $1.25 million per month illegally boosting" Trump, and that "most of their influence was organic — not an ad at all." That troll farm received 187 million interactions on Instagram from 2015 through 2018, and another 77 million interactions on Facebook and 73 million on Twitter, a Senate Intelligence Committee report previously found — all without major help from ad buys.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Political cartoons for November 15Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include cowardly congressmen, a Macy's parade monster, and more
-
Massacre in the favela: Rio’s police take on the gangsIn the Spotlight The ‘defence operation’ killed 132 suspected gang members, but could spark ‘more hatred and revenge’
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
