Kushner Dismisses NBA Protests, Touts Trump’s “Historic Criminal Justice Reform”

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President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner dismissed NBA players who’ve opted not to play games as part of a protest against police brutality against Black Americans, saying they are “fortunate” to have enough wealth to “take a night off from work.”

“I think the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences for themselves financially,” Kushner said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “So they have that luxury, which is great.”

“With the NBA, there’s a lot of activism and I think that they put a lot of slogans out, but I think that we need to turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that’s gonna solve the problem,” he added.

Kushner went on to tout the president’s “historic criminal justice reform,” giving particular mention to the creation of Opportunity Zones, which say states may designate up to 25% of low-income census tracts.

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“We just have to take this conversation from an emotional one to a constructive one and say what are the policies that we can agree on,” Kushner said, urging the United States to “come together on a policy platform.”

You can watch Kushner’s interview below.

"The NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially," says White House senior advisor Jared Kushner on the NBA player boycotts last night. pic.twitter.com/nHlRBNIzaf

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 27, 2020

Kushner’s comments come after Marc Short, the Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, referred to the boycotts as “absurd” and “silly.”

“I don’t know that you’re going to see the administration weigh in on that one way or the other. In my mind, it’s absurd, it’s silly,” Short told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day” when asked if the vice president supports the boycott.

“If they want to protest, I don’t think we care,” he added, noting that the administration shouldn’t speak out on the boycott “one way or the other.”