Jared Kushner disparaged the NBA players from at least six teams who decided to strike Wednesday night in protest of Kenosha, Wisconsin police shooting an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back seven times at point-blank range while three of his children looked on.
Kushner said because the players are wealthy they can afford to “take a night off from work,” as if the historic unplanned strike was merely a way to not have to work. He then accused them of having “put a lot of slogans out,” but not doing anything productive – unlike President Donald Trump, he said.
“Look, I think that 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,” Kushner told CNBC Thursday morning.
“So they have that luxury, which is great. Look, with the NBA I think there’s a lot of activism and I think that they’ve put a lot of slogans out.”
“But I think that what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that’s going to solve the problem,” he said.
According to Kushner, the problem isn’t systemic racism in police departments across the country.
“If you look at President Trump’s record,” Kushner said, “he’s passed historic criminal justice reform.”
Criminal justice reform did not stop police from shooting Jacob Blake in the back seven times and paralyzing him.
Kushner went on to talk about “opportunity zones,” “school choice,” “violence in these cities,” and HBCUs.
He then said: “you’ll hear President Trump talk about that tonight and on the campaign which is that a lot of people in Washington have failed these inner cities for a long time.”
Watch a portion of Kushner’s interview: