I wish I could even describe the joy this story gave me on Tuesday. My internet went out and I was sitting in the middle of a mostly quiet library when I came across Wired’s version of the story and I had to stop myself from barking with laughter. It seems that Congress is hosting a “summer lecture series” for congressional interns. Jared Kushner gave a lecture, which was supposed to be off the record. Here’s Wired’s lead-in:
On Monday, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner spoke to a group of congressional interns as part of an ongoing, off-the-record summer lecture series. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, Kushner may have inadvertently offered some insight into the negotiating tactics he is using in the Middle East.
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.
The interns had staffers yell at them prior to hearing Precious Jared’s precious words and those interns STILL RECORDED the lecture and they still leaked it far and wide. It’s beautiful. So what did Precious Jared say? A lot of ridiculous sh-t of course.
When he was assigned “fixing the Middle East”: “So first of all, this is one of the ones I was asked to take on, and I did with this something that I do with every problem set you get. Which is you try to study the historical context to understand how something got to where it is, who was successful, and who wasn’t successful. And you try to [unintelligible] is research it and look at the conventional sources but also try to get some unconventional sources as well. And what I’ve determined from looking at it is that not a whole lot has been accomplished over the last 40 or 50 years we’ve been doing this.
Why the Trump team didn’t collude with Russia: “They thought we colluded, but we couldn’t even collude with our local offices.”
Don’t know much about history: “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?”
His big Middle East plan isn’t unique, probably: “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.”
None of his Middle East Peace conversations have leaked: “My point is that these things are very, very combustible and very, very delicate in terms of how you can do, but I think the fact that all these conversations were all done in quiet and nothing leaked out… But I think we were able to keep things quiet. But I mean, any day something could happen.”
“What I’ve determined from looking at it is that not a whole lot has been accomplished over the last 40 or 50 years we’ve been doing this.” The Obama administration was at a stalemate with Israeli leadership, and while Israel liked the Bush years, the Bush years led Israel to the current situation. But go back further – Clinton got really close to a comprehensive two-state solution, only for Israeli leadership to blow it up in the 11th hour. And before that… Carter got the biggest “win” for the Middle East when he got Sadat and Begin to agree to a peace which has mostly held. Do you think Precious Jared knows that history? I do not. Please remember this for all time: “We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books.” How about I tell you the story about the rise of fascism?
Photos courtesy of Getty.
If it were any other person or president, there MIGHT be something to the idea of “we’re not getting anywhere doing it like this, let”s try something new”, but with this jerk and this president, it isn’t about thinking outside the box, it is about pretending you’re playing war games and trying to come up with an option that benefits you personally. If peace is ever going to be brought to the Middle East, it isn’t going to be because of this jackass.
Unfortunately, I think the last, best shot they had at it died with Rabin’s assassination.
And did Jared really admit the Drump’s couldn’t collude with their own offices? These morons are beyond stupid. And scared out of their minds that the truth will out them as partners in crime with Putin.
Good for the interns. It must have been excrutiating for the interns to lidten to Jared and his lackeys lecture every one on morals.
I saw that too and I was like, does he even realize what he just said??
Congressional interns tend to be highly intelligent and driven people, all of whom probably know more about the situation in the middle east than Precious Jared does.
Kushner doesn’t get that the incompetence defense points directly to Russian interference. If they were too incompetent to run a campaign, how did Trump win?
I cannot for the life of me imagine having to sit through his drivel. Even just reading the excerpts made me want to jump out of my chair and out of the room. How demoralizing to have to sit through such a farce.
But hopefully it won’t deter those interns from wanting to reset the bar.
I was a Congressional intern (later full time staffer). You don’t get that gig unless you are really smart or your parents have connections.
Hmmm. So, cluelessness, delusion, babbletalk and idiocy are contagious, then. Right. Got it.
Did the writer of this article finish high school?
Could you elaborate on that? You mean the WIRED writer? Because that article is well-written. The quotes – which are, admittedly, awful English – are all on Jared.
He talks like his FIL talks . . . the use of very, very and the phrase “any day something could happen”. Cant’ handle two of them that use word salads.
These were verbatim quotes. That proves that just because this little boy went to ivy league doesn’t mean he earned it. His daddy paid for that honor.
This idiocy was part of the vile Trump campaign. The attacks on experts and so-called elites were part of the appeal to Trump’s base. So now we have the decidedly non-expert Mr. Kushner to negotiate Mid-East peace.
I keep remarking that the Trump Era is like the Chinese “Cultural Revolution.” Take all the professors and professionals and experts and put them in the fields, and have peasants run the country instead. Trump detests the intellectual elite (and books! He can’t even read!) and favors mobsters. A sure recipe for success.
You’re so right. He detests anyone intellectual, but that’s why he can’t run the office because he does not have the background or training for it.
Yes and that set the country back for decades! The CR was basically thug mentality and Mao’s Red Guards attacked teachers and their elders – anyone they felt dissed them. Forget manners and respect for elders. Those hooligans burned that book.
I consult with NGOs working in the Middle East and have traveled the region extensively for work and pleasure. History is EVERYTHING in that region of the world. If Kushner isn’t interested in understand the multi-layered nuances of Middle Eastern history he is a fool. While no one believes he will achieve peace, he has the potential to do lasting harm to US relationships with countries in the region.
And Kushner was supposed to be the smart one.
Megan, his Yeshiva teachers were surprised he got into Harvard. They say he wasn’t that smart. His father donated money so he could attend.
Anyone who can dress themselves and figure out the light switches qualifies as “the smart one” in this bunch.
God forbid we actually consult with our State Department people or past presidents on this. Oh wait, I forgot. We no longer have State department people. We have a lazy oil tycoon guy who won’t talk to the few remaining people who haven’t fled Foggy Bottom.
Actually to be fair, Tillerson has submitted nominees or referrals on who he should staff in his dept. They were all turned down by that pack of morons in the WH for not “being loyal Trumpist.” Wow I did not know that was a job requirement! What next? Make fed employees take a vow of loyalty to orange butt?
These people are hustlers, grifters, and soulless self promoters, the American equivalent of Eurotrash. Learning about the nuances of history while occupying the highest office in the land has no benefit for them.
Did anyone read the transcript of the WSJ interview that the deputy-in-chief specifically ordered not to be leaked, but someone leaked it to every major newspaper. Politico published the entire transcript and in it Drump again lies about all the love everyone in the history of the world gives him everyday. And of course he can’t finish a simple thought or string two sentences together.
Read it yesterday (my SIL posted it on her FB page) and had a headache just reading a little of it. It made NO sense whatsoever. And I couldn’t stand how they were fawning all over Trump.
Same here, swak. Read a bit of it and then had to stop. It hurt my head. He is an incoherent asshole.
Yep, more than anything, the interview/transcript highlighted drump’s incoherence and utter incompetence. Guess that was why the slavish deputy editor in chief ordered no leaking. Love that instead someone sent it around to all the major media outlets.
I did read it, and he was incoherent.
Dump can’t hold a thought for more than a few seconds… he has dementia. That’s obvious and they need to get the 25th Amendment measures rolling now.
His medical records are still a mystery.
I completely agree with you. Cheeto exhibits an inability to stay focused, control his inhibitions or remember what he said five minuted earlier. The deterioration of the executive function of the brain (which controls processes such as focus and inhibition control) is a sign of frontotemporal dementia.
I think so because if you watched his old interviews. The ones in the 80s, he didn’t use to talk like that. Something is mentally wrong with him for sure.
Is that the one with the quote about having dinner with Bob Kraft and Kraft saying that Trump should tax the rich and take care of the middle class? That interview was insane.
I love how Trump’s response to Kraft was (according to him) “It was a very interesting statement. I feel the same way.”
Yeah dude super-interesting! LOL
He acts like this is the first time he’s ever heard this before, like it’s a novel idea and not Presidenting:101 material.
Scary thought: maybe it IS the first time he’s heard this. O_O
Sounds like he’s pretending that they’re working on things “in secret”. That way, nobody can question what’s actually been done…or not done. I’m guessing not much has been done. Classic stall tactic.
They basically sent him packing and told him never to return.
Reminds me of my former life with a tech company, where new dude bros would show up at meetings with “disruption” as their answer for everything. It’s the contemporary version of emperor with no clothes. They quit or were fired usually within a month, when they had no results to share with the team.
Hilarious, they actually said ‘disruption’? Where were they educated or did they come up with this?
Yeah, it’s a thing – “creative disruption.” One of the newer buzz-phrases to sweep the corporate world. To me it just sounds like a way for management to excuse firing good people and throwing everything into turmoil on whim.
They used to do “change management” but now they can creatively disrupt.
WATP, yes. UGH. Makes me so happy to be out of the corporate world. I hear my husband sometimes on conference calls when he works from home and the buzzwords make me shudder as much now as they did back in the day.
Oooohhh, I get it. They’re working “very quietly” and that’s why it appears as if he’s actually just sitting around with his thumb up his … excuse me. This man sounds so dumb, it’s incredible.
I do love these interns. “F*ck it, I’m LEAKING this.” You have to wonder how some of them felt, most likely having worked very hard to get that damn internship and then THIS one shows up to tell them “no more books, who needs books”. I’m surprised nobody set up a tripod just to piss them all off.
After reading that I feel dumber. He said a whole bunch of nothing…out loud and in front of people. Harvard isn’t as good of a school as I thought it was if they let him graduate talking like that. I am starting to see why he is Foolius’ favorite son: Damien sounds like a younger version of himself.
“They thought we colluded, but we couldn’t even collude with our local offices.” Huh? So he is subtly dragging the Dump team and himself by admitting that they are incompetent fools who don’t know anything or did he make the wrong word choice? I think it may be both.
Also, try staring at Damien’s face for a few minutes. First, you just see a head that is shaped like a qtip, but, the longer you stare at it the more terrifying it becomes. Those soulless and vacant black eyes show you what the depths of hell will look like if you listen to him long enough. Kind of like being hypnotized by one of Satan’s high ranking minions. Creepy stuff.
He’s like Sir Hiss from Disney’s Robin Hood
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/51/0d/d3/510dd3091d7782dff44869bf13d568bf.jpg
lol
He talks like his FIL, for sure. A bunch of words pushed together and none of it makes sense, or equates to anything.
Also, way to be transparent. People who have nothing to hide (like a lack of articulating skills) would never need to keep everything off record.
Who needs books and history lessons?! That’ll really make this country “great” again.
TL; DR? Jared can’t speak too good, books are bad, trust us, we have some big, new ideas, but they’re a secret, so don’t tell anyone.
He bought his way in and bought his way out. He is dumb as a stump.
AT, I completely agree. I said above, how demoralizing to have to sit through such a farce. I can’t laugh…or cry. I’m just numb.
‘How about I tell you the story of the rise of fascism” LOVE.YOUR.WORK !
confused, how did ” Israeli leadership to blow it up in the 11th hour”? I always learned both sides had their reservations to the deal initially and a bottom line wasn’t reached by the time Barak was up for re-election in Israel and he lost….. So nothing was ever continued.
The 2000 Camp David Summit fell apart because Arafat rejected EVERYTHING, not because of the Israeli elections. Clinton discusses the summit in his auto-biography.
Here is an excerpt:
“At times Arafat seemed confused, not wholly in command of the facts. I had felt for some time that he might not be at the top of his game any longer, after all the years of spending the night in different places to dodge assassins’ bullets, all the countless hours on airplanes, all the endless hours of tension-filled talks. Perhaps he simply couldn’t make the final jump from revolutionary to statesman. He had grown used to flying from place to place, giving mother-of-pearl gifts made by Palestinian craftsmen to world leaders and appearing on television with them. It would be different if the end of violence took Palestine out of the headlines and instead he had to worry about providing jobs, schools, and basic services. Most of the young people on Arafat’s team wanted him to take the deal. I believe Abu Ala and Abu Mazen also would have agreed but didn’t want to be at odds with Arafat.”
This exactly. This CB writer needs to educate herself about the ME. It was Arafat who consistently blew up negotiations. Palestinians were offered even more land a few years later, and rejected that as well. Polls show 80% of Palestinians believe they can reclaim all of Israel, and won’t settle for anything less. Hence, no peace.
It isn’t popular to state those facts at the moment JG. Most people don’t even know the history of the region and how Israel became a nation. It helps explain the current state of affairs.
Arafat’s refusal to negotiate set the stage for the right-wingers to take over Israel.
There will be no peace for a very long time.
JG-yes, exactly. Don’t put that failure on Israel.
Exactly! Arafat was handed abou 90% of what he asked for, and even expressed surprise that he got it. He also said that if he made peace, he’d be assassinated as soon as he got home. Hardly someone who wanted real peace.
THANK YOU. Every time they’ve been close to a real peace agreement, the Palestinian leadership does something to unravel it. They had multiple opportunities, and blew it every time, and now they have a hard-line right-wing leader in Israel who has no interest in negotiating with terrorists.
And it is apparently very unpopular at this moment in time to point out historical fact, that long before Palestinians or any other Muslims lived in the region, Jews lived there, and were subsequently expelled from there and every other country. The idea of reparations is acceptable for Native Americans and other minorities, but apparently not for Jews, because reasons, I guess.
That’s a very partial point of view. Also if the conflict is still what it is today we can also thanks the Israel people for electing right wing politicians. Something in common with America today.
True, but there was no improvement when more dovish leaders were elected either.
they didn’t, lol. what a stupid uneducated comment
They didn’t blow it up. Arafat and the Palestinians blew it up.
Here comes revisionist history. Fortunately, most people outside of the US are very aware of what’s happening in Palestine. From the river to the sea!!!!
Notmypresident: the one “revising history” are the Palestinians and the so-called progressives on the left who are backing up people who have never had any interest in the Jews being in Israel. Their solution is Jews out of their own homeland.
Simplistic views from a simple mind. He will learn the hard way why peace in the Middle East is elusive.
His father in law needs some information on the Middle East. When Trump was giving a speech in Israel, he said he’d just returned from the Middle East. America’s Israeli ambassador gave himself a hilarious face palm and shook his head in embarrassment
“His father in law needs some information…” I think we can just stop there.
I love these interns. Record everything. Don’t back down.
Trump voters believe ignorance is bliss..god forbid this bunch learn simple truths about the environment, health care, the constitution, basic morality, and on and on..
“But go back further – Clinton got really close to a comprehensive two-state solution, only for Israeli leadership to blow it up in the 11th hour.”
This is factually inaccurate. The Clinton administration produced the Oslo accords and later towards the end of the Clinton presidency there was a second round of peace talks that broke down because of Palestinians. Even Clinton said in his biography that Palestinian leadership said no to EVERYTHING.
It seems there is an anti-Israel bent lately to any posts referencing Israel/Palestine.
Only on the left. Sorry to say, but it’s true.
Really true. Being a right-wing anti-Semite will get you fired, but a left-wing one gets to be the face of women’s liberation. LOL
I would say that being an Anti-Semite should probably get most people fired, regardless of political affiliation.
Yes. I hate that-but it’s accurate.
It’s awful to say, but accurate. I posted a few things about the Chicago March debacle on my FB page, and almost none of my outspoken SJW friends said a peep or reacted. I guess they don’t realize that their silence speaks volumes to Jews like me.
Anti-Israel does not equal Anti-Semite.
He should “collude” with Stephen Baldwin and together that brain trust could do what actual experts in both the middle East and negotiations have failed to do over decades.
Well, that’s really part of the problem. After years of degrading experts, education and accumulated knowledge by experts in any field, right wingers really think wishful thinking will get the job done the way they want it to happen. And then you end up with an unqualified son in law in of a buffoon in charge of the middle East peace process.
Refusing to look at the history of colonial and foreign intrusion on Middle Eastern politics is a big reason why we’ve wound up where we are today, but please. Continue on in ignorance. It’s worked so well for us thus far.
Exactly.
Refusing to acknowledge the roll that religion plays in the Middle East is a large reason why the Middle East is what it is today–not to mention the Cold War.
role* but I’m sure you got the point
Sort of like the role of religion in the United States, right? Religion is a good part of why we have Trump.
(But shhhhh don’t participate in the War on Christianity!)
You could say that. the fact that we have a supreme court that might bow to a small group of religious fanatics in this country is horrifying.
I suspect a region afflicted in many places by economic instability, class disparity, ethnic clashes, infrastructural decay, colonialist invasion, and civil and foreign war probably has a more complicated source of problems than religion. Fanaticism grows out of social discontent; religion just provides the vehicle. You can try removing it from the equation, but somehow I doubt that will fix anything.
Actually Clinton secured a pretty big victory in 1994 when he brokered peace between Israel and Jordan. Jordan agreed to let Israel decide the fate of the West Bank, which Jordan controlled prior to 1967. Please note that even when Jordan controlled the WB, they refused to give it to their Arab brethren, the Palestinians. Yet they received zero worldwide criticism or condemnation.
Jordan was/is heavily criticised within the ME for it’s foreign policies but its treatment of the Palestinians can’t be compared to
Israel.
Yet Jordan is a theocracy, with zero democratic elections, and the 2 million Palestinian refugees have not been given citizenship and many live in refugee camps. If you think that’s so much better than in Israel, then why aren’t more Palestinians moving there from the WB? Also, keep in mind, this is how they are treating their fellow muslims. There aren’t the religious differences to contend with, like in Israel.
Cultural, historical, religious and political differences run too deep in the ME, especially between Israel and the Palestinian authority. Plus the problems between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
A huge issue that very, very few talk about is the humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinian refugees (several generations over since late 1940s). They are refused citizenship and integration in the neighbouring Arab countries where they’ve live in, again, several generations over. Millions of people living their whole lives as refugees, and having their basic rights denied, by Arab countries that host them. What happens there? Neighbours making political statements towards Israel. Where is the brotherhood? Political stance vs. the faith of millions of people.
What are these words? They make no sense to me.
so he says he studied the history of conflict in the middle east. then, in the next paragraph, he states we no longer need history lessons and books. and this is probably the least infuriating thing in the speech, but i’m bothered.
That’s also how I read it. He says something, then immediately contradicts himself.
There’s nothing worse than listening to an idiot who thinks they are brilliant talk.
I wonder what the officials in the Middle East (from any country) must think about having to deal with Kushner, a man who obviously knows nothing. I know they might feel they have to make nice because it’s the US but what could they discuss with someone who is so uninformed?
It sounds as if he’s setting himself up to “conclude” that there isn’t much the US can do.
there is a manger at my job who is like – anti reading. he makes fun of people who read things – like out loud, in meetings teasing them for being nerds. or he makes jared like statements like “we need to stop reading about it and act” or some shit like that. as if taking the time to educate oneself is a total waste of time. it is such a weird thing to be superior about. its so gross but i guess if i read less (and grew balls) i could make it to the top!
He’s a prat, full stop.
Didn’t the King of Lies and Fake News also said that he didn’t need books because he is smart and knows words?
Exactly…he “knows words, lotsa word” -direct quote from this imbecile. My dog knows and responds to more words than this tiny fisted idiot (and has bigger paws, too! Lol)
I face palm’d so hard.
Both the Israelis and Palestinians know a light weight when they see one.