Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a former Harvard classmate of Jared Kushner’s, blasted the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser for his comments on Fox News insinuating that Donald Trump couldn’t help Black Americans if they didn’t “want to be successful.”
“This is how the 1% look at minorities,” Gallego wrote on Monday.
Then in a powerful Twitter thread, he broke down what he, as a Latino teen not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, had to do to gain acceptance into Harvard, including studying for exams in between flipping burgers, borrowing a friend’s computer to finish his application and riding public transportation to meet his interviewers.
In contrast, the young Kushner had a father, real estate developer Charles Kushner, who was able to donate $2.5 million to the Ivy League university.
Kushner’s comments, made on a Monday episode of “Fox & Friends,” attracted condemnation from a variety of other voices, including former President Barack Obama, who criticized Kushner during a Tuesday rally in Orlando, Florida. Other lawmakers, including Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), argued that Kushner’s remarks revealed “white privilege” and “ignorance,” while Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) tweeted that Kushner was the “last person that should be lecturing the Black community on the value of ‘hard work.’”
Following the backlash, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Kushner’s remarks, claiming that “internet trolls” had taken his statement out of context.
Watch Kushner’s full interview with “Fox & Friends” below, with relevant comments beginning around the 6-minute mark.
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.