Donald Trump seems to think his son-in-law is an expert in, well, everything. Mideast policy? Check. Reforming criminal justice? Sure, why not? Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign? In his spare time, ok. Shadow task force? Well, if you insist. Jared has even declared the administration’s response to the virus “a great success story.” Tough act to follow but hang on. The Daily Beast reports, he has been tasked with “helping get a vaccine for the disease developed in record time.”
President Donald Trump, who has said he believes a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year, is turning to his son-in-law to help streamline the effort, branded, “Operation Warp Speed.” Kushner is working alongside White House senior adviser Peter Navarro, who pitched the operation via memo to the president’s coronavirus task force as early as this February.
Dr. Rick Bright, a top vaccine specialist, was ousted from his job as he was trying to help develop a coronavirus vaccine late last month. He filed a whistleblower complaint earlier this week. So to be clear, someone who trained his whole career for a moment like this is out, and Kushner, who has no experience in the medicine or science, is in.
There is also evidence that Kushner’s coronavirus efforts were, to put it kindly, a disaster. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor tweeted, “Jared Kushner put bewildered 20-something volunteers with no disaster or medical experience at the forefront of PPE sourcing. The result: “bureaucratic cycles of chaos.” An investigation in the New York Times revealed:
The fumbling search for new supplies — heralded by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner as a way to pipe private-sector hustle and accountability into the hidebound federal bureaucracy — became a case study of Mr. Trump’s style of governing, in which personal relationships and loyalty are often prized over governmental expertise, and private interests are granted extraordinary access and deference.
And with The Daily Beast reporting that Kushner is going to “use his relationships in the private sector to speed up the normally lengthy development process,” there are questions about whether that means he has a financial interest in doing so.
And don’t be surprised if there is suddenly some promising vaccine news from Kushner, timed right before the election.
Odds are growing that by late October (a) a vaccine will have preliminary favorable evidence (b) it will need much more testing and supply would be extremely limited anyway (c) Trump/Kushner will use this to push a different, dangerous, fake “vaccine” while claiming success.
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) May 6, 2020
This post contains opinion.
