4764

Prior to Kushner’s talk, Katie Patru, the deputy staff director for member services, outreach, and communications, told the assembled interns, “To record today’s session would be such a breach of trust, from my opinion. This town is full of leakers and everyone knows who they are, and no one trusts them. In this business your reputation is everything. I’ve been on the Hill for 15 years. I’ve sat in countless meetings with members of congress where important decisions were being made. During all those years in all those meetings, I never once leaked to a reporter…. If someone in your office has asked you to break our protocol and give you a recording so they can leak it, as a manager, that bothers me at my core.”

WIRED has obtained a recording of Kushner’s talk, which lasted for just under an hour in total.
[…]
Later in the clip, Kushner expresses frustration at others’ attempts to teach him about the delicate situation he’s been inserted into, saying, “Everyone finds an issue, that ‘you have to understand what they did then’ and ‘you have to understand that they did this.’ But how does that help us get peace? Let’s not focus on that. We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books. Let’s focus on: How do you come up with a conclusion to the situation?” He then goes on to lament the press’s treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a family friend who he’s known since childhood.

Kushner’s dismissal of the nuances of the conflict has already been an issue. Last month, when Kushner met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian official told Haaretz that Kushner “sounded like Netanyahu’s advisers and not like fair arbiters” and that they were “greatly disappointed” after the meeting. Abbas himself was “reportedly furious.”

Finally, Kushner closed with the following statement of reassurance: “So, what do we offer that’s unique? I don’t know… I’m sure everyone that’s tried this has been unique in some ways, but again we’re trying to follow very logically. We’re thinking about what the right end state is. And we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there’s a solution. And there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem sets that the president asked us to focus on. So we’re going to focus on it and try to come to the right conclusion in the near future.”

4765

“Everyone finds an issue, that ‘you have to understand what they did then’ and ‘you have to understand that they did this.’ But how does that help us get peace? Let’s not focus on that. We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books. Let’s focus on: How do you come up with a conclusion to the situation?”

Books! Hurr hurr. History is dumb.

4766

Nobody needs a history lesson when making a deal, just a straight from the hip shooter!

4767

Trust your gut instinct.

…and keep that gut healthy and free of refugee toxins. BUY NOW!

Capture
Capture.JPG573×827 46.6 KB

4768

Those who read history are doomed not to repeat it. And what fun would that be?

4769

It’s worth noting that this particular facet of incompetence is all Trump, and not really the GOP writ large.

If virtually any of the other GOP nominees had become president, they almost certainly would not have had the same massive purge of everyone in the government, because they all had a dramatically better understanding of how the government worked.

Trump himself, as well as most of the power players in his administration, literally did not understand the basics of any of this.

4770

You’re probably correct, but honestly I would not put it past many in the GOP at large these days to think the exact same way. You just can’t underestimate the unreasonable hatred of all things Obama from many of the far right people in government service these days.

Trump’s amateur hour transition teams and clueless appointees just ratchet the overall anti-Obama anti-Dem/Liberal sentiment up to 11 on a 10 scale. With a different President and team in charge, it would be a lot more subtle, but still there.

4771

Or Australia, France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and a whole slew of others.

4772

I thought you were joking so I did a quick search. Holy shit, we have a LOT of nations without current ambassadors.

4773

Hmmm…it seems we have no current ambassador to the Bahamas. I suppose I could take one for the team…

4774

Can Reagan return from the dead and kill everyone? Let’s find out.

4775

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it, right? ;-)

4776
4777

Another way this administration is similar to tape, that I’ve noticed, is sometimes it’s hard to see the end.

4778
4779

Fuck you Joe. You may be Illinois’ biggest political embarrassment, were it not for the fact we also had Dennis Hastert.

4780

It’s an elite club at the top of Illinois political embarrassments. A very large club, but elite. Just to be mentioned in the same breath as Hastert and Blagojevich must be an honor for Walsh.

4781
4782

Seriously, open and honest about his lying? Is that a real tweet? How does your brain it explode out of your ears after typing that?

4783

… Except Trump doesn’t think that at all. He thinks he’s being clever and getting away with it. He honestly thinks he’s the word’s greatest bullshitter.

What Walsh means is that Trump is stupid and obvious in his lying. It’s not clear why being lied to by a moron is supposed to be better.