Jared Kushner, the senior adviser to President Trump, told Fox News’ “The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton” Sunday that it is “absolutely disgusting” to see politicians trying to use the coronavirus to score political points in an election year.
Kushner, who is also Trump’s son in law, pointed to the recent anniversary of the attacks on 9/11 and recalled how–in the immediate aftermath– Americans didn’t “politicize that crisis.”
“We came together as a country,” he said. “President Trump has continued to lead, continued to do the right thing. But it’s very sad for me to see how a lot of these politicians have tried to politicize this. But that’s what they do.”
The election season is in full swing and both Trump and Joe Biden are trying to present themselves as the leader who will keep Americans safe amid the deadly pandemic. Biden’s team has tried to describe Trump as someone who failed to rise to the occasion. Democrats have claimed that Trump did not take the virus seriously enough in its early stages and has been playing catchup ever since.
Biden has also appeared to struggle to make clear distinctions in how he would have approached the virus back in March.
Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser for Biden, was asked by Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday” about the former vice president’s decision to hold rallies in March and played a video clip of Biden’s reaction to Trump’s decision to restrict travel from China.
“This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia to — and fearmongering, to lead the way instead of science,” Biden said.
Wallace asked Sullivan why it took Biden two months to publically approve the restrictions. Sullivan denied the time frame and Bidden said in a speech on March 12 that travel restrictions can slow the virus.
“But they can’t stop the virus,” Sullivan said, regarding the restrictions. “His [Biden’s] whole point was, the only way long-term for us to get this virus under control is for the president to stand up and do his job here at home where the virus was circulating”
Kushner told Steve Hilton, the host of the program, that Trump took the virus seriously from the start.
“They said we would have shortages on the frontline workers PPE; they said that we were going to have people dying because they weren’t in ventilators,” Kushner said.“That didn’t happen.”
Kushner also credited Trump for his leadership in the push for a vaccine. He said there are several vaccines that are now in Phase Three trials, which is “faster than anyone thought possible.”
Kushner said the coronavirus has brought a lot of heartbreak to Americans and has been challenging. But he said Trump is the man for the job and prevented the country from being in a “much worse position.”