2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
- 111,978
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Kushner testified to day and he released his testimony beforehand.....and the left wept...again....sooooooo close.....and yet...nothing there...again...
Kushner empties the bag on Russia - Hot Air
This morning there was yet another twist to the story, however, as Kushner seemed to toss out a preemptive strike in terms of what he would be telling the committee. He released a lengthy statement to the press (link to CNN) detailing what he describes as an effort to, “shed light on issues that have been raised about my role in the Trump for President Campaign and during the transition period.”
He describes his role in the campaign as being, among other things, the point person for foreign contacts who were reaching out to the campaign to establish relationships. Obviously all of the attention will be focused on any Russian interactions and Kushner provides the details, such as they are. He starts with the now “infamous” meeting last April at the Mayflower. It was set up by Dimitri Simes, publisher of The National Interest.
[Simes] introduced me to several guests, among them four ambassadors, including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy. The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.
By this point I’m sure everyone in the administration knows that there are people leaking like mad and if Kushner doesn’t come clean about any meetings, every omission will be headline news. With that in mind, he’s almost certainly giving up whatever there is, so this meeting sounds like pretty much a nothingburger. But then he moves on to one of the many anonymously sourced reports about additional phone calls to the Russian ambassador which was originally reported by Reuters. As far as that story goes, Kushner is throwing down the gauntlet and pretty much daring them to prove it or be guilty of putting out fake news. (Emphasis added)
Katie Pavlich - Jared Kushner to Make Rare, Public Statement After Senate Testimony
The statement will come shortly after Kushner's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, in which he denied any collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election. From his testimony, which can be read in full here:
When it became apparent that my father-in-law was going to be the Republican nominee for President, as normally happens, a number of officials from foreign countries attempted to reach out to the campaign. My father-in-law asked me to be a point of contact with these foreign countries. These were not contacts that I initiated, but, over the course of the campaign, I had incoming contacts with people from approximately 15 countries.
To put these requests in context, I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States. While I could not be responsive to everyone, I tried to be respectful of any foreign government contacts with whom it would be important to maintain an ongoing, productive working relationship were the candidate to prevail.
To that end, I called on a variety of people with deep experience, such as Dr. Henry Kissinger, for advice on policy for the candidate, which countries/representatives with which the campaign should engage, and what messaging would resonate. In addition, it was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one, especially long emails from unknown senders or email chains to which I was added at some later point in the exchange.
With respect to my contacts with Russia or Russian representatives during the campaign, there were hardly any. The first that I can recall was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. in April 2016. This was when then candidate Trump was delivering a major foreign policy speech.
Doing the event and speech had been my idea, and I oversaw its execution. I arrived at the hotel early to make sure all logistics were in order. After that, I stopped into the reception to thank the host of the event, Dimitri Simes, the publisher of the bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, who had done a great job putting everything together. Mr. Simes and his group had created the guest list and extended the invitations for the event.
He introduced me to several guests, among them four ambassadors, including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy.
The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.
Kushner empties the bag on Russia - Hot Air
This morning there was yet another twist to the story, however, as Kushner seemed to toss out a preemptive strike in terms of what he would be telling the committee. He released a lengthy statement to the press (link to CNN) detailing what he describes as an effort to, “shed light on issues that have been raised about my role in the Trump for President Campaign and during the transition period.”
He describes his role in the campaign as being, among other things, the point person for foreign contacts who were reaching out to the campaign to establish relationships. Obviously all of the attention will be focused on any Russian interactions and Kushner provides the details, such as they are. He starts with the now “infamous” meeting last April at the Mayflower. It was set up by Dimitri Simes, publisher of The National Interest.
[Simes] introduced me to several guests, among them four ambassadors, including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy. The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.
By this point I’m sure everyone in the administration knows that there are people leaking like mad and if Kushner doesn’t come clean about any meetings, every omission will be headline news. With that in mind, he’s almost certainly giving up whatever there is, so this meeting sounds like pretty much a nothingburger. But then he moves on to one of the many anonymously sourced reports about additional phone calls to the Russian ambassador which was originally reported by Reuters. As far as that story goes, Kushner is throwing down the gauntlet and pretty much daring them to prove it or be guilty of putting out fake news. (Emphasis added)
Katie Pavlich - Jared Kushner to Make Rare, Public Statement After Senate Testimony
The statement will come shortly after Kushner's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, in which he denied any collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election. From his testimony, which can be read in full here:
When it became apparent that my father-in-law was going to be the Republican nominee for President, as normally happens, a number of officials from foreign countries attempted to reach out to the campaign. My father-in-law asked me to be a point of contact with these foreign countries. These were not contacts that I initiated, but, over the course of the campaign, I had incoming contacts with people from approximately 15 countries.
To put these requests in context, I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States. While I could not be responsive to everyone, I tried to be respectful of any foreign government contacts with whom it would be important to maintain an ongoing, productive working relationship were the candidate to prevail.
To that end, I called on a variety of people with deep experience, such as Dr. Henry Kissinger, for advice on policy for the candidate, which countries/representatives with which the campaign should engage, and what messaging would resonate. In addition, it was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one, especially long emails from unknown senders or email chains to which I was added at some later point in the exchange.
With respect to my contacts with Russia or Russian representatives during the campaign, there were hardly any. The first that I can recall was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. in April 2016. This was when then candidate Trump was delivering a major foreign policy speech.
Doing the event and speech had been my idea, and I oversaw its execution. I arrived at the hotel early to make sure all logistics were in order. After that, I stopped into the reception to thank the host of the event, Dimitri Simes, the publisher of the bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, who had done a great job putting everything together. Mr. Simes and his group had created the guest list and extended the invitations for the event.
He introduced me to several guests, among them four ambassadors, including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy.
The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.
